Indictment Against Mato Baotic Filed

Baotic, a former military police commander at the Croatian Defense Council and also a former commander of a detention camp in a school building in Donja Mahala, has been charged with the rape and sexual abuse of Serb women on several occasions.

According to the indictment, Baotic and other Croatian Defense Council soldiers took women away from houses or detention camps and took them to the school building in Donja Mahala. There, the injured parties were unlawfully detained and raped.

According to an announcement released by the state prosecution, one woman got pregnant as a result of her rape. She had an abortion when she became a refugee.

The state prosecution has also charged Baotic with torturing, abusing, and beating Serbs detained in Donja Mahala in an extremely humiliating manner. Some of them had been brought from the Bosanski Brod area.

Baotic lived in Germany and up until recently was unreachable by Bosnian judicial bodies. He was arrested during a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina in August 2015, and was ordered into custody.

“The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina will attempt to demonstrate the defendant’s guilt in this case by examining about 25 witnesses and expert witnesses and presenting dozens of documents as material evidence,” a state prosecution announcement says.

The indictment has been filed with the Bosnian state court for confirmation.