Tadic Sentenced to Five Years for Killing a Detained

The Chamber determined that Tadic, a former member of reserve police forces from Prijedor, came to Omarska in July 1992 and told a guard to bring Sivac. He then took him behind a white house and killed him from his pistol.

Sivac’s body was later found in a mass grave.

Trial Chmber Chairwoman Vesna Stankovic-Cosovic said that the Prosecution had fully proved all the allegations contained in the indictment.

“The Defence did not deny that Sivac was a detainee and that he was killed, but it tried to deny that he was killed by Tadic, as well as the time of his death. The Chamber did not trust the defence witnesses, because they constructed their statements with the aim of protecting the indictee,” said Stankovic Cosovic.

She explained that witness Jadranka Gavranovic said that she was held alone in the white house bathroom, but other witnesses denied that.

It was said that witness Zeljko Mejakic too gave a false statement, saying that he and Tadic were in Prijedor on that day and that they arrived in Omarska detention camp in the afternoon, when they found out that a group of intellectuals had been taken away.

The Chamber considered the fact that Milorad Tadic had not expressed remorse for the committed crime as an aggravating circumstance.

“Although he was a driver, he should have protected all citizens considering that he wore a police uniform as member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The passage of time, the fact that the murder happened during an armed conflict and that Tadic is a family man and father of two have been taken into consideration as mitigating circumstances,” judge Stankovic-Cosovic said.

The parties have the right to appeal the verdict with the Supreme Court of Republika Srpska.