Acquitted Bosnian Serb Soldier Sues for Compensation

Ilija Vukasinovic, who was cleared of expulsions, looting and killings in the Rogatica area in 1992, launched his case for compensation from the state at a preliminary hearing on Monday.

Vukasinovic’s lawyer said he wants to call a neuro-psychiatrist to offer an opinion about the mental distress caused to his client by the 199 days he spent under house arrest, when he was visited and checked up on by police officers twice a day without prior notice.

The amount of compensation that the ex-solder is claiming has not been specified.

Assistant state attorney Jelisaveta Plasto said she objected to the defence proposal to examine the expert witness and Vukasinovic himself.

In May 2017, the Bosnian state court’s appeals chamber Vukasinovic of crimes against humanity, along with ex-soldiers Radomir Markovic, Mile Kusic, Dragan Bozovic, Sasa Perkovic, Radomir Gluhovic, Pero Radovic and Milos Vukasinovic.

The court found the eight ex-servicemen not guilty of taking part in expulsions and looting, as well as killing around 20 civilians including women and children in a barn in the village of Karacici in the Rogatica area in September 1992.

Markovic was the commander of the Socici unit of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Rogatica brigade, while the other defendants were members of the unit.

The verdict said that the prosecution only proved during the trial that the defendants were members of Bosnian Serb forces in Rogatica, while the other allegations in the indictment “remained in the domain of assumption”.

The main hearing in the case has been scheduled for October 3.