Bosnian Indicted for Insulting Child War Casualties on Facebook

The Bosnian state prosecution said on Monday that Samir Nukic has been indicted for posting insults and expressions of hatred on Facebook during an anniversary commemoration last year for eight Croat children who were killed by a shell in a playground in Vitez in 1993.

Despite warnings from other Facebook users of the social network, Nukic “repeated the curses and insults towards the victims”, the prosecution said in a statement.

“In the above-mentioned manner, the defendant caused anxiety for Ivan Garic, who is one of the survivors and whose sister and brother were killed in the above-mentioned incident and who is the founder of an association dedicated to the death of the eight children in Vitez, as well as to other people to whom the disputed hate speech… caused anxiety and discomfort,” the statement added.

Nukic has been charged with publicly inciting violence or hatred against a group of people because of their ethnic background, thereby provoking ethnic, racial and religious hatred, discord and intolerance.

BIRN reported in 2020 that no one has ever been brought to justice for the artillery attack on the playground in the Podgradina neighbourhood of Vitez in June 1993, which killed eight children and injured others.

The indictment of Nukic has been forwarded to the state court for confirmation.