Bosnian Detention Camp Guard’s Prisoner Abuse Conviction Upheld

Bosnia`s Constitutional Court. Foto: Constitutional Court  

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected as unfounded an appeal from Ivan Medic, upholding his conviction for participating in the inhumane treatment of civilian prisoners and of forcing them to have sexual intercourse with each other at the Dretelj detention camp in 1992.

Medic had claimed that his right to a fair trial had been breached because his defence was not allowed to examine one of the witnesses.

But the Constitutional Court dismissed this, saying that “there was no violation of [Medic’s] rights and of the European Convention”.

Contrary to Medic’s claims, the court also found that he had not been improperly tried twice for the same offence and had been given the possibility to file an appeal.

The Dretelj camp was a vast Yugoslav military barracks that was used by Bosniak and Bosnian Croat forces in 1992 as a detention centre for civilian from the Herzegovina region.

When their armies started fighting each other the following year, it then became a detention camp for Bosniaks under the command of the Croatian Defence Forces.

Some 3,000 prisoners were held there in total, and subjected to torture, beatings and rapes.

The Constitutional Court’s decision in the Medic case is final.