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Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will make a decision on appeals from the State Prosecution and Baricanins Defence at a later date. The first instance chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Baricanin to 18 years of prison for crimes in Sarajevo in November 2011.
The first instance verdict sentenced Baricanin for the involvement in the murder of three members of the Balvanovic family, as well as the multiple rape of a female person. Beside rape and murder, Baricanin was found guilty of enslaving a person.
Behaija Krnjic, prosecutor for the Prosecutions Office Bosnia and Herzegovina, explained the appeal to the verdict by saying that the first instance procedure established the facts.
The Trial Chamber did not violate the Criminal Procedure in any significant way, but it failed to correctly assess the extenuating and aggravating circumstances for the defendant, especially the aggravating ones, which affect the duration of the sentence. The passed verdict this way will not have the purpose of general or special prevention, so I recommend that the sentence be changed to at least 20 years of prison, said Krnjic.
On the other hand, the defendants lawyer Dusan Tomic requested that the first sentence verdict be quashed, because it violated the criminal procedure, established facts wrongly, and wrongly implemented the material right, and he asked that the case be retried before the Appellate Court.
The first instance chamber showed a great deal of intolerance and contempt for my client, which is evident in the verdict itself. I recommend that the Appellate Chamber dismiss the appeal from the Prosecution as groundless and quash the Draconian sentence, reestablish the facts and pass the correct verdict, which I think is the acquittal, said Tomic.
Tomic also said that he believed it was incorrectly established that his client raped the plaintiff.
She said a dozen times that he did not abuse her. The act was a normal sexual act. This man saved the womans life. The plaintiff claimed she begged Sasa to take her with him, said Tomic.
Defendant Baricanin in his statement before the Appellate Court said he was manipulated at the start of war.
A.S.
