Local Justice – Lipovac: Verdict Confirmed

Under the second instance verdict Lipovac was sentenced for having participated in the murder of several members of the Rizvanovic and Turan family in Liskovac village on the night of August 1/2, 1993, together with Savo Veljkic, Zeljko Jovic, Z.S. And “two other unidentified persons”.Over the course of the same night two female members of the Rizvanovic family were wounded and the indictees raped 20-year old S.R.Available data suggest that Veljkic and Jovic are on the run, while Z.S. was killed in a car accident in 2001.Nenad Balaban, Lipovac’s Defence attorney, said he was not satisfied with the Supreme Court’s verdict.“I shall file an appeal with the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but I do not expect much from it. I consider that there is not sufficient evidence to support the verdict as it is. Lipovac was recognised 13 years after the crime and this is disputable,” Balaban said.On February 19, 2007, the District Court in Banja Luka rendered a first instance verdict acquitting Lipovac and Drazen Nikic of the charges “due to lack of evidence”.The Banja Luka District Prosecution appealed the verdict. The RS Supreme Court upheld the appeal and ordered a retrial.Drazen Nikic was then acquitted of the charges under a first and later second instance verdict, while the case against Lipovac, who was not available to prosecution institutions, was separated. An Interpol warrant was then issued against him.Lipovac was arrested in the Republic of Georgia in December 2009. He was deported to Bosnia and Herzegovina and handed over to Republika Srpska judicial institutions in the beginning of May 2010.Following the retrial, Lipovac was sentenced under a first instance verdict pronounced in June 2010 to 10 years in prison. G.O. ———————————————————————————————–This article is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID.) The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of Balkan investigative reporting network (BIRN) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.