Bosniak Military Prison Chief’s Conviction Challenged in Belgrade

Husein Mujanovic’s defence lawyer asked the Appeals Court in Belgrade on Tuesday to acquit his client or send the case for a retrial, while the prosecution called for his sentence to be raised to 15 years in jail.

In July 2020, Mujanovic was sentenced to ten years for beating Serb prisoners at prison in Hrasnica in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war in 1992.

According to the indictment, some 30 Serb prisoners were held at the Hrasnica prison, which was run by the Bosniak-led Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, from July 8 to October 15, 1992.

The prisoners were held in poor conditions and abused. Some of them were beaten in a nearby fallout shelter, and six died as a result of the beatings. Mujanovic was charged with personally beating two prisoners who survived.

Mujanovic’s lawyer Dusan Ignjatovic told BIRN that there is enough evidence for his client to be acquitted of charges of illegal detention by the Appeals Court.

“Regarding inhumane treatment and beatings, these [charges] still need to be clarified [at a retrial],” Ignjatovic said.

He argued that the first-instance procedure had been unfair to his client because Belgrade Higher Court did not accept all the witnesses proposed by the defence.

“Of all the 24 witnesses we suggested, who have relevant information about it, they [the court] denied us everyone and examined all the prosecution witnesses. And then it is clear to you that this is not a fair trial,” he said.

Meanwhile the Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes urged the Appeals Court to impose a 15-year prison sentence, as it did at Belgrade Higher Court in closing arguments in the original trial.

Mujanovic was arrested in July 2018 by Serbian police at a border crossing between Bosnia and Serbia. He has been in custody in Serbia ever since and this time will be counted towards his sentence.