Serbian Court Convicts Bosnian Serb of Wartime Assault, Robbery

Belgrade Higher Court. Photo: BIRN

Belgrade Higher Court on Tuesday found Bosnian Serb ex-fighter Zeljko Budimir guilty after a retrial of beating up a Bosnian civilian and stealing his money in the village of Rejzovici in the Kljuc municipality in November 1992.

But the court acquitted Budimir of participating in the murders of the wife and mother-in-law of the Bosniak man, whose name was Ale Strkonjic.

Judge Vinka Beraha Nikicevic said Budimir defended himself by claiming he was at a family dinner and went to propose his girlfriend on the night of the crime, but the court disbelieved him.

“The court could not accept Budimir Zeljko’s defence because it was repudiated by statement of Ale Strkonjic, the only survivor [of the crime], and he spoke clearly about what happened in his house,” Beraha Nikicevic said.

The indictment had claimed that Budmir was one of three fighters who broke into Strkonjic’s house in Rejzovici at around 11pm on November 21, 1992, and beat him up and stabbed him.

Strkonjic gave the men the money they were demanding – some 5,800 German marks – and then escaped.

One of the two other fighters who was with Budmir approached Strkonjic’s wife Fatima, pulled out his gun and shot her in the head, then killed Strkonjic’s mother-in-law, Fata Koljic, with a knife, the indictment alleged.

The indictment did not specify to which military group or unit the defendant belonged.

In the initial trial in September 2019, Budimir was also sentenced to two years in prison for assaulting and robbing Strkonjic and acquitted of participating in the murders of his wife and her mother. But in March 2020, Belgrade Appeals Court quashed the verdict and ordered a retrial.

During the trial, Budimir insisted that at the beginning of the war in 1992 he was in the reserve police force, and later in the summer of 1992, he was sent to fight in Kupres in Bosnia.

But he said that from October 13 to December 1, 1992 – the period in which the crime was committed – he was released from military service.

His girlfriend at the time of the crime, who has since become his wife, testified in both trials that he went to propose to her on the night of the attack.

The prosecutor did not call any new witnesses during the retrial, but the defence called Nenad Bajic, brother of Predrag Bajic, one of the two fighters with whom Budmir was accused of committing the crime.

Nenad Bajic told the court that his brother told him he was under pressure to blame Budimir for the crime, although Budimir was not with him on the day it was committed.

Predrag Bajic and another man, Mladenko Vrtunic, were convicted of the murders of the two women and the attack on Strkonjic by the cantonal court in Bihac in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2014.

As Budimir lives in Serbia, his case was transferred from Bosnia to Belgrade, where his trial started in April 2018.

Tuesday’s verdict was a first-instance ruling and can be appealed.