Belgrade Court Increases Bosnian Serb Soldier’s War Crime Sentence

The Appeals Court in Belgrade. Photo: BIRN.

Belgrade Appeals Court has increased the sentence handed down to former Bosnian Serb soldier Milan Dragisic from four to five years in prison for one killing and two attempted killings of civilians in the town of Bosanski Petrovac in north-western Bosnia and Herzegovina on September 20, 1992.

The verdict, issued on February 1 but published on Monday, said that the first-instance court did not sufficiently assess “the gravity of the crime committed and the consequences”.

After the body of Dragisic’s brother, who died in the Bosnian war, was transferred to Bosanski Petrovac, he went on an armed rampage through the streets, killing one Bosniak man, Asim Kavaz, and trying to kill two others.

The Appeals Court said that the first-instance ruling did not take into account the fact that “the victims were his neighbours and acquaintances, who did not contribute in any way to or bear responsibility for the death of the defendant’s brother”.

In the first-instance verdict in July 2020, the Higher Court in Belgrade sentenced Dragisic to four years in prison.

At one of trial hearings in Belgrade in February 2020, Dragisic admitted killing one civilian but denied responsibility for the deaths of two others.

His case was being retried after a previous verdict convicting him was quashed.

He was originally sentenced to four years in prison in April 2019 for killing Kavaz and trying to kill his son and another man, but was acquitted of the other allegations.