Bosniak Deputy Commander Jailed for Prisoner Abuses

Nihad Bojadzic, the former deputy commander of the Bosnian Army’s Zulfikar Squad, was jailed for one year for the beating and abuse of Croat prisoners of war in the Jablanica area in 1993.

The Bosnian state court on Thursday convicted Bojadzic of ordering his troops to beat two captured Croat fighters and of abusing another by firing a gun near his head.

The court however acquitted him of several other charges including raping one prisoner, ordering two detainees to sexually abuse each other and participating in beatings.

Bojadzic was found guilty of having ordered a soldier to beat the two captured members of the Croatian Defence Council, Karlo Ramic and Franjo Ramljak, at The Battle of Neretva museum in Jablanica in mid-July 1993.

Presiding judge Enida Hadziomerovic said it had been found that the soldier took Maric from the basement to the corridor and beat him until Bojadzic told him: “That’s enough.”

Immediately after that, prisoner Ramljak was beaten up in the same way.

Bojadzic was also found guilty of having fired bullets close to the head of a captured fighter while interrogating him about weapons at the Zulfikar Squad’s base in Donja Jablanica in September 1993.

But the court cleared Bojadzic of the rape, sexual abuse and beating charges, accepting alibi that he was in Sarajevo and not at The Battle of Neretva museum at the time the crimes were committed on July 28, 1993.

He was also cleared of beating and stabbing someone in the leg, pulling an infusion needle out of a captive’s vein and other allegations, with the court citing a lack of evidence to prove the charges.

Although the one-year sentence was below the legal minimum, the court said it would serve the purpose of punishment.

The verdict can be appealed.

In a separate case, Bojadzic was sentenced to 15 years in prison in September last year for the murders of Croat civilians and soldiers in the village of Trusina, near Konjic.