Wartime Killer of Bosnian Family Skips Prison Sentence

Sretko Pavic (standing) in court. Photo: Bosnian state court.

Sretko Pavic, who was convicted in July this year of war crimes against civilians, did not report to prison to serve his 11-year sentence, the Bosnian state court has confirmed.

Pavic was obliged to start serving his prison term by November 30, but filed a motion requesting a postponement.

However, the state court said that his request was “definitively dismissed” and that “the procedure provided by law for sending him to prison to serve his term is underway again”.

Pavic, a former member of the Volarska Company of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Sixth Ljubija Battalion, was convicted of participating in the murders of five civilians, all members of the Causevic family, in the village of Rizvanovici near Prijedor in July 1992.

The court found that that the members of the Causevic family were detained in a building next to a checkpoint in Rizvanovici when Pavic and another Bosnian Serb soldier called Pero Stevandic took them out and killed them. Stevandic has since died.

Over the past year, two other people who were convicted of wartime crimes in Prijedor also failed to report to prison to serve their sentences, and warrants were issued for their arrest.

Darko Mrdja, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity, was arrested in April 2020 and sent to jail.

Mico Jurisic, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for crimes against humanity, is still at large and is believed to be outside the country.