Bosnia Reduces Serb Ex-Soldier’s Sentence for Persecuting Bosniaks

Garic Rade. Photo: Bosnian state court

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court partially upheld an appeal from Rade Garic and reduced his sentence to 17 years in prison for committing crimes against humanity against the Bosniak populations of Vlasenica and Srebrenica during the war in 1992 and 1995, the court announced on Friday.

Under the first-instance verdict in August 21, Garic was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The court convicted Garic of the persecution of Bosniaks from Vlasenica and Srebrenica, finding him guilty of involvement in murders, forcible disappearances, physical and psychological abuse and other inhumane acts.

He was found guilty of participating in three separate murders of Bosniak civilians. One of them was killed and his body thrown off a cliff, while another was hanged and beheaded, and then his body was thrown into the river while Garic and his men kicked the head about.

Garic was initially a member of reservist police forces in Vlasenica and later became commander of the Intervention Section of the Drina Squadron and the Intervention Squad of the Vlasenica Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, according to the verdict, which described his crimes as unscrupulous and brutal.

The second-instance verdict cannot be appealed.