Bosnia Prosecution Appeals Naser Oric War Crimes Acquittal

Prosecutor Miroslav Janjic asked for a retrial to be ordered, claiming that legal and factual mistakes were made during the first-instance trial.

Janjic called the first-instance acquittal a “one-of-a-kind verdict” in the history of the Bosnian court, alleging that it was based on an “imaginary piece of evidence”.

But Oric and Muhic’s defence teams argued that the prosecution’s appeal was “confusing, unclear and incomprehensible”.

Oric, who was a commander of Bosnian Army territorial defence units, and Muhic, his subordinate, were accused of killing three Serb captives in the villages of Zalazje, Lolici and Kunjerac in 1992.

But the court ruled in October last year that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Oric and Muhic carried out the killings.

Oric had previously been acquitted of war crimes in the Srebrenica area in 1992 by the UN tribunal in The Hague.

The Sarajevo case was highly controversial because Oric is seen as a hero by many Bosniaks for his role in defending Srebrenica in the years before the 1995 massacres, while some Serbs have claimed that the charges against him should have been more severe.

Oric’s acquittal drew strong criticism from Bosnian Serbs and Serbian officials.