US to Extradite Alleged Wartime Killer to Bosnia
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Former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Knjeginjic is suspected, along with three other people, of having participated in the murder of a Bosniak married couple, Rejhan and Razija Sikiric, in 1994.
He was acquitted of the charges in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but a new trial was ordered.
In 2009, the District Court in Banja Luka sentenced Dusan Gagic and Mladen Popovic to ten years in prison each for killing the Sikirics.
But Knjeginjic argued at the Michigan court that the suggested extradition should be rejected based on a ‘political offence exception’, because the killings took place during a war.
The defence said Knjeginjic and the others were angry after Serb police officers were killed by Bosnian Army troops, and wanted revenge.
But the judge rejected this line of argument.
“The only evidence that the murders were politically motivated is a statement by the defendant that the murders were retaliation for the deaths of eight police officers, but subjective political motivation does not make any act of isolated violence ‘a political offence within the exception’,” Green explained.
He said that the two victims were unarmed civilians and there was no evidence that they had any political affiliation, just an assumption by Knjeginjic and the others that, due to their Muslim religion, the couple were somehow associated with the Bosniak side in the conflict.
Neither Bosnia’s state prosecution nor the district prosecutions in Banja Luka and Prijedor were able to confirm by the time of publication whether or not they are seeking Knjeginjic for trial.
US media reported that Knjeginjic has lived in the US since 2001, but was stripped of his citizenship last year because he lied to the immigration service about the murder suspicions and about his wartime military service with the Bosnian Serb Army.
