Vranjes et al: Longer Sentence or Verdict of Release

The Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will render its decision about the appeals filed by the State Prosecution, Defence teams and indictee Vranjes at a later stage.

In October last year the first instance Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Vranjes and Milic to ten years in prison each for having assisted a person to take the three Grgic brothers from Nenad Tesic’s house to the municipality building, where two of the brothers were killed, while the third one was wounded, during the armed conflicts in Kotor-Varos on June 6, 1992.

Vranjes is a former member of the Public Safety Center in Banja Luka, while Milic is former member of “7551 Military Post in Banja Luka”.

Explaining his appeal, State Prosecutor Dzevad Muratbegovic proposed to the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to revise the first instance verdict and pronounce “longer imprisonment” against the indictees.

“We consider that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has correctly determined the factual status and classified the actions undertaken by Vranjes and Milic, but the ten-year imprisonment sentence is not adequate considering the committed crimes. The Court failed to take the aggravating circumstances into account,” Prosecutor Muratbegovic said.

The Defence teams said that the State Prosecution’s appeal was unfounded.

The Defence attorneys of Vranjes and Milic and indictee Vranjes filed appeals against the first instance verdict due to wrongly and incompletely determined factual status, substantive violations of the criminal code and criminal proceedings, proposing to the Court to acquit the indictees of the charges.

“We consider that my client should have been a Prosecution witness. Markovic shot at the Grgic brothers, while my client was disgusted with that. (…) Goran Markovic’s criminal actions have nothing to do with Vranjes. Perhaps my client should have testified right away. However, he did not do that, because he was afraid of the crazy Markovic, who threatened him,” said Nenad Balaban, Defence attorney of Vranjes.

The original indictment filed by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina also covered Goran Markovic, former member of “7551 Military Post in Banja Luka”, who is charged with having shot at the prisoners, after they had been brought to a monument erected in honour of fallen soldiers. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina rendered a decision, separating the case against Markovic from the case against the two other indictees due to Markovic’s illness.

Vranjes said that he did not know Markovic, Milic or the Grgic brothers prior to the event described in the indictment, adding that they did not make any prior agreement about it.

Presenting his appeal against the first instance verdict, Simo Tosic, Defence attorney of Milic, said that indictee Milic could not be linked to Goran Markovic, and proposed to the Court to acquit Milic of the charges.

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina proposed to the Court to reject the Defence’s appeals as groundless.S.U.