Bosnia Upholds Serb Soldier’s Jailing for Killing Two Bosniaks

Bozidar Perisic and co-defendant Vinko Zoranovic in court with their lawyers. Photo: Bosnian state court

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Thursday upheld the first-instance verdict sentencing former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Bozidar Perisic, alias Boban, to ten years in prison for crimes against humanity.

The acquittal of his co-defendant, fellow ex-soldier Vinko Zoranovic, alias Joja, was also confirmed.

Under the first-instance verdict, Perisic was convicted of killing two Bosniaks, Salem and Mustafa Sijercic, with an automatic weapon on June 19, 1992, in the village of Gracanica, near Rogatica.

Their bodies were subsequently set on fire by unknown Bosnian Serb Army soldiers and the remains have not been found.

However, due to a lack of evidence, Perisic was cleared of killing two other Bosniak men in June 19, 1992 in the village of Gracanica, and of causing physical and psychological injuries to another man and his son on November 21, 1993 in the village of Satorovici.

Zoranovic, who was a policeman in Rogatica, was cleared of raping two women in Rogatica on the night of June 20-21, 1992.

This was a final verdict and cannot be appealed.