In a second-instance verdict, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced six defendants for crimes committed against Serb and Croat civilians in the Hadzici area to a total of 42 years in prison.
Nine Bosnian Serb officials, police officers and soldiers went on trial in Sarajevo for an attack on the village of Novoseoci in September 1992 in which 45 Bosniak civilians were shot dead.
Former reservist policeman Simo Stupar was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his involvement in killing, beating and illegally detaining Bosniaks in the Vlasenica area in 1992.
Empty graves are waiting for three young Bosnian Army soldiers who disappeared during an attack by Bosnian Croat forces in Mostar in May 1993, but despite their families’ efforts, their bodies have not been found and their killers remain unprosecuted.
A report funded by the government of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity claims Serbs were subjected to ethnic cleansing in wartime Sarajevo, but its allegations differ from facts established by courts about crimes during the siege.
Former Bosnian Serb Army military policeman Goran Viskovic, who is already serving a prison sentence for crimes against humanity, was charged with participating in the killings of eight Bosniak civilian prisoners.
The Bosnian court rejected Croatian Defence Council ex-fighter Mile Pazin’s appeal against his one-and-a-half-year prison sentence for mistreating a Bosniak civilian prisoner in the Stolac area in 1993.
A report by a commission funded by the government of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity claimed that Serbs were subjected to ethnic cleansing in Sarajevo during the war and that crimes against them have been ignored.
The Bosnian state court ordered an international warrant to be issued for the arrest of former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Marko Kovac, who lives in Serbia and failed to appear in court in Sarajevo to face war crimes charges.
The Higher Court in Belgrade agreed to take over the case against wartime Bosnian Serb Army military police officer Dragomir Kezunovic, who was initially convicted in Bosnia of crimes against humanity.