Serbia Agrees to Prosecute Suspects in Two Bosnian War Cases

Belgrade Higher Court. Photo BIRN

Belgrade Higher Court told BIRN on Tuesday that the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution has taken over the indictment of Milorad Kotur, who is accused of involvement in the wartime killings of more than 50 Bosniak and Croat civilians in the Bosanska Krupa area in July and August 1992.

The court said the Serbian War Crimes Prosecution has also taken over the case against Lazar Mutlak, who is accused of raping and sexually abusing a female civilian in the Gorazde area during the war in May 1992.

In November 2021, Kotur was supposed to appear at the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo to enter his plea but did not turn up.

He is accused, as a member of the reservist police force at the Public Security Station in Bosanska Krupa, of having participated in the murders of 44 Bosniak and Croat detainees, including two women, who were removed from the Omarska detention camp and then shot dead.

The detainees were taken by minibus from Omarska to the village of Donji Dubovik, tied up with wire and shot dead next to the Lisac pit.

Culibrk was also found guilty of having participated in August 1992 in the murders of seven Bosniak civilians who were travelling from Prijedor towards Bihac and were also killed next to the Lisac pit.

His former co-defendant Dusan Culibrk was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in the crime.

Mutlak is accused, as a member of the local Territorial Defence force, of raping and sexually abusing a Bosniak woman, using force and death threats against the victim, in May 1992 in the village of Srpsko Gorazde (since renamed Novo Gorazde).