Bosnian Serb’s Conviction for Shooting Elderly Couple Quashed

Belgrade Appeals Court. Photo: BIRN

Belgrade Appeals Court has overturned the verdict sentencing Danko Vladicic to nine years in prison for killing a married couple in their apartment in Brod na Drini, near the Bosnian town of Foca, on August 18, 1992.

Vladicic was found guilty at Belgrade Higher Court in November 2022 of committing a crime against the civilian population.

The trial judge said that Ramo and Tima Vranjaca were the only Bosniak civilians left in Brod na Drini at the time of the attack because all the others had fled in fear. But because they were elderly and Ramo Vranjaca was sick, they thought no one would harm them.

Vladicic’s cousin Dragomir Krnjojelac, a Bosnian Serb Army soldier, died on the front line on August 8, 1992.

Ten days later, according to the indictment, Vladicic entered Ramo and Tima Vranjaca’s apartment in Brod na Drini and shot the married couple dead. Their bodies have never been found.

During the trial, the court established that Vladicic was not a member of any armed group.

Belgrade Appeals Court said in a statement that it quashed the verdict and sent the case for a retrial because the facts of the case had not been properly established at the initial trial, which led to “substantive violations of provisions on criminal proceedings”.

The start of Vladicic’s retrial has been set for September 13, Belgrade Higher Court told BIRN.

The District Public Prosecutor’s Office in Trebinje in Bosnia initially indicted Vladicic for the crime in February 2019 and the Serbian Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes then took over the case and indicted him in February 2021.

Vladicic denied the charges at the start of the trial.