Acquitted Bosnian Serb Ex-Police Commander Sues State

Goran Saric’s lawyer said on Wednesday that he is suing Bosnia and Herzegovina for 43,000 Bosnian marks (22,000 euros) in damages over the prohibitive restrictions imposed on him while he was on trial and the mental distress he suffered.

While on trial at the Bosnian state court in two separate cases, in both of which he was acquitted, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry’s special police brigade was not allowed to leave the country or communicate with witnesses.

Saric’s lawyer Ozrenka Jaksic said he should be examined by a court expert in psychiatry to gauge the seriousness of the mental problems he suffered as a result.

“It is necessary for a court expert to carry out an examination in order to determine the effects of the mental distress, fear and the negative attitudes from the public due to the court proceedings, as well as the difficulties in maintaining normal family and other relations, and the length and the intensity of individual problems caused by the prohibitive measures,” Jaksic said.

The Bosnian state attorney’s office said that Saric’s suit should be rejected and argued that the restrictions were justified.

Saric was acquitted last November of involvement in the genocide of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995.

He was cleared of having issuing instructions and exerting control over his deputy Ljubomir Borovcanin, who the Hague Tribunal sentenced to 17 years in prison for crimes in Srebrenica, and of assisting members of a joint criminal enterprise in committing genocide.

In November 2014, Saric was also acquitted of supervising men who were detained in the Jagomir psychiatric hospital in Sarajevo in 1992, some of whom were later killed. He was alleged to have been the chief of the police’s Public Security Station in the Serb municipality of Centar in Sarajevo at the time of the crimes.