Bosnian Constitutional Court Rejects Female Croat Fighter’s Appeal

The Constitutional Court in Sarajevo on Thursday turned down the appeal by Indira Kameric against her conviction, saying that her right to a fair trial was not violated as she had alleged.

“The Constitutional Court finds there is no violation of the right to a fair trial considering the fact that regular courts provided clear and precise reasons for their conclusion that Kameric committed the crimes with which she was charged, without elements that would imply an arbitrary application of the laws that were used or the violation of the right to a reasoned decision,” the court’s decision said.

The Constitutional Court also ruled there was no violation of the right to legal remedy because the appellant had at her disposal legal remedies to help her protect her rights, which she used.

Kamerica was found guilty, as a member of the 101st Bosanski Brod Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council, of participating in the mental and physical abuse of prisoners detained at the FK Polet football stadium in Bosanski Brod in 1992.

However she was acquitted of physically and mentally abusing a detainee at the police station in Bosanski Brod, and of aiding the rapes of female prisoners at the FK Polet stadium.

The sentence handed down was below the legal minimum because Kamerica was young at the time she committed the crimes, and because she showed respect towards the victims, said the presiding judge at her trial.

The state court’s appeals chamber increased her jail term from three to four years in February 2016.