Bosniak Soldier Acquitted of Killing Serb Civilians

The cantonal court in Sarajevo has acquitted former Bosnian Army serviceman Azemin Sadikovic for a second time of the killing of four Serb civilians in the Hadzici municipality in May 1992.

The court on Wednesday acquitted Azemin Sadikovic of crimes against Serb civilians in the village of Kasatici in the Hadzici municipality.

Presiding judge Jasenko Ruzic said the court had found no evidence that Sadikovic had committed the murder of four members of the Milosevic family.

“Individual pieces of evidence contradict each other. The allegation that Sadikovic really committed the crime has been brought into question. Defence witnesses gave [him] a clear alibi, stating that he was at another location, not at the crime scene,” Ruzic said.

The cantonal court had previously acquitted Sadikovic in March last year, but the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina quashed the verdict, saying that the facts had been wrongly and incompletely determined.

Also on Wednesday, a state prosecution witness at the trial of three former Croatian Defence Council fighters for alleged crimes in Livno said he hid a group of detainees in the Ivan Goran Kovacic school building during a visit by the Red Cross.

Witness Marko Jankovic said he participated, as a military policeman in Livno, in apprehending people, mainly Serbs, for interrogations. He said one of the defendants, Zdenko Andabak, was the chief of the military police.

Zdenko Andabak, Muamir Jasarevic, alias Babo, and Sead Velagic are on trial for the alleged detention, torture and murder of Serb civilians at the Ivan Goran Kovacic school in Livno in 1992.

According to the charges, Andabak was the commander of the Croatian Defence Council’s military police for the North-Western Herzegovina Operational Zone, Jasarevic was his deputy, while Velagic was a member of the military police’s crime service.

In a separate development on Wednesday, the state court said it would start the trial of former Croatian Defence Council fighter Jozo Djojic, who is charged with rape in the Odzak area in 1992, after court experts said he was capable of following the proceedings.

The indictment against Djojic was filed more than two years ago, but the trial has still not begun because the court has been trying to determine whether the defendant is capable of following the trial.

Djojic pleaded not guilty in December 2014. Two expert evaluations of his health were carried out after that, but because their conclusions were contradictory, a third one was ordered.

The third team of experts concluded that the defendant was manipulative and had exaggerated his symptoms, and said he was aware of the crimes with which he is charged.

Djojic, a former member of the 102nd Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, is charged with raping a woman in the municipality of Odzak in July 1992.