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Wartime general Novak Djukic’s trial in Belgrade suffered another delay on Wednesday because he has been hospitalised for medical treatment, his lawyer said.
Djukic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Ozren Tactical Group, is accused of ordering an artillery squad to shell the Bosnian town of Tuzla on May 25, 1995. Seventy-one people died in the attack.
He was sentenced to 20 years in jail for the crime by the Bosnian state court in June 2014, but did not turn up to serve his sentence in Bosnia, claiming he was undergoing medical treatment in Serbia.
Bosnia issued an international arrest warrant for him in October 2014, but Djukic cannot be extradited to Bosnia because it has no extradition treaty with Serbia.
Serbia then offered to deal with the case, but Djukic has not appeared for a series of hearings so far, claiming that the Bosnian court has not sent the necessary case documents yet.
His defence lawyer Milorad Konstantinovic told BIRN that Djukic did not appear for the latest hearing at the Higher Court in Belgrade on Wednesday because he was in hospital, and said that an expert opinion was needed to determine whether he is fit to appear in court.
Konstantinovic also said that only “maybe some ten per cent” of the case documents had arrived from the Bosnian state court so far.
“Nothing came from the Appeals Council, nothing came from the investigation, written evidence that was required didn’t arrive, so I don’t know on what basis they will judge here,” he said.
The Bosnian court confirmed to BIRN in June that it received the request for the documents, but said there was no legal basis for the sending the entire case material.
It argued that the court in Belgrade does not need to confirm the Bosnian verdict, but just to take over the enforcement of Djukic’s 20-year sentence.
Serbia signed an agreement with Bosnia in 2010, which allows Sarajevo and Belgrade to ask each other to take over the enforcement of sentences.
Serbia’s behaviour in the Djukic case has been criticised by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and its chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz.
