Bosnian Serb Soldier Cleared of Visegrad Prisoner Abuse

The Bosnian state court on Thursday found Popovic not guilty of taking part in a wide and systematic attack which resulted in the persecution of the Bosniak population in Visegrad in 1992.

Presiding judge Stanisa Gluhajic said the court found that prosecution witness statements were inconclusive, which is why Popovic was cleared of all charges.

He was acquitted of arresting a man called Nurko Dervisevic together with another Bosnian Serb Army serviceman, Nebojsa Todorovic, then taking the detainee to the police station in Visegrad where Milan Lukic, the head of a Serb paramilitary group called the White Eagles, abused him.

Lukic was sentenced to life in prison by the Hague Tribunal in 2009 for wartime crimes including murder, torture and looting.

Popovic was also found not guilty of then taking Dervisevic to the Uzamnica detention camp.

“Looking at the statements of Dervisevic and Todorovic, the chamber could not find that the arrest of Dervisevic was illegal. The chamber also noted that Dervisevic does not know who took him to Uzamnica, since he was drunk, and that none of the witnesses said that Popovic was anywhere nearby when Lukic abused Dervisevic,” said judge Gluhajic.

Popovic was also cleared of charges that he personally beat Dervisevic and another man in the Uzamnica camp because the witness accounts were illogical and differed from one another.

“The chamber concluded that prisoners in Uzamnica were forced to sing Serb songs and that there was pork in the food, but it could not find that the defendant was responsible for these actions,” said Gluhajic.

The court also acquitted Popovic of taking four prisoners from Uzamnica and sexually abusing them, because the witness statements were again inconclusive.

“The victims said in their previous statements that the person responsible was [another fighter called] Mico Spasojevic and only later they said that Popovic was also there,” explained the judge.

The verdict can be appealed.