Bosnian Serb Troops Jailed for Killing Civilians, Children

The verdict said that at the beginning of June 1992, the three soldiers went to a stable in which four members of Medosevic family and two children aged 11 and nine were concealed.

The soldiers ordered them to come out of the stable, locked the two children inside a house and ordered the others to walk towards a field near the house.

“While the Malesevic family members were walking towards the field, they hit them. When one of them managed to flee, they killed two civilians with firearms, while one person died due to being hit in the chest,” said presiding judge Halil  Lagumdzija.

Milosav, Marijan and Slavko Jovanovic then returned to the house and killed the two children, who were locked inside.

They then set the house on fire.

“The defence teams tried to prove that the defendants were engaged in a military task at the Medena Glavica elevation point during the period of time when the crime took place and that the murders were committed by paramilitary formations. The chamber could not accept those pieces of evidence,” Lagumdzija said.

Another defendant, Stevo Jovanovic, was acquitted of the one count with which he was charged.

He was cleared of the murder of a woman called Aisa Popovic in the village of Buckovici.

Milosav, Marijan and Slavko Jovanovic were also acquitted of the murder due to lack of evidence.

The verdict can be appealed.