Vlastimir Golijan Pleads Guilty to Genocide
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“I understand the indictment and I plead guilty,” Golijan said to a preliminary hearing judge at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Golijan, Franc Kos, Stanko Kojic and Zoran Goronja, former members of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, are charged with having “directly and personally participated” in the shooting of Bosniaks who were captured after the fall of the Srebrenica UN safe area in July 1995.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina considers that the indictees and other members of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad shot the detainees, some of whom had been tied up and blindfolded. It further alleges that, following the mass murder of the men and boys, Kos and Kojic searched for survivors, whom they then “killed by shooting from their revolvers”.
Kos, Kojic and Goronja pleaded not guilty to the allegations contained in the State Prosecution’s indictment.
“I understand the indictment to some extent. What you are saying is a bit unclear as well. I am under therapy because I suffer from schizophrenia, but I can say I am not guilty,” indictee Kojic said.
Dusko Tomic, Defence attorney for Franc Kos, said the indictee pleaded not guilty to the allegations that he committed genocide, adding they were still negotiating a guilt admission agreement with the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which might contain a revised qualification of the crime.
At the hearing held on July 9 this year it was announced that Kos had entered into guilt admission agreement negotiations with the Prosecution.
The indictment alleges that Kos was a commander of the First Bijeljina Platoon with the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad, and that he also used the name of Branimir Manojlovic. He was arrested in the Republic of Croatia in April 2010 on a warrant issued by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was then extradited to judicial institutions in Bosnia for further processing.
Acting on a warrant issued by the State Prosecution, the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, arrested Golijan, Goronja and Kojic in late February this year.
The trial of Kos, Goronja and Kojic is due to begin within the next 60 or 90 days. As Golijan has pleaded guilty, the Trial Chamber will consider the evidence and pronounce a sentence against him.
