Three Bosnian Serb ex-policemen were sentenced to a total of 23 years in prison for crimes against humanity in Bileca, while an ex-soldier was jailed for 14 years for the murders of Bosniaks in Bihac.
In this month’s edition you can watch footage on Sarajevo artists’ ability and inventiveness to help their fellow citizens live during the longest siege in modern history.
Former Bosnian Serb policemen Goran Vujovic, Miroslav Duka and Zeljko Ilic were sentenced to a total of 23 years in prison for crimes against humanity in Bileca in 1992.
The Bosnian state court found Vujovic, Duka and Ilic guilty on Friday of taking part in the abuse and torture of Bosniak and Croat civilians at the police station in Bileca and in a student dormitory in the southern town.
The defence lawyer for Zeljko Ilic, one of three former policeman accused of crimes against humanity in the Bileca area in 1992, called for his client to be acquitted.
Statements by relatives of people kidnapped from a train in Strpci in February 1993 and later killed said they first heard of the abductions through the media.
A witness testifying in defense of Miroslav Duka said he was told that paramilitary soldiers had apprehended Bosniaks and took them to the Bileca police station in June 1992. Duka, Goran Vujovic and Zeljko Ilic have been charged with war crimes in Bileca.
At the trial of three defendants charged with war crimes in Bileca, the defense of Miroslav Duka included 23 pieces of material evidence in the case file. The evidence included a statement given by a deceased witness, who said no one was taken away or mistreated in the village of Zausje.
Defense witnesses testifying at the trial of three former Bosnian Serb policemen said they didn’t see defendant Miroslav Duka when a group of Bosniaks was apprehended in front of the Bileca police station.
The Bosnian state prosecution demanded a longer jail sentence for Vitomir Rackovic, who has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for crimes committed in Visegrad under a first instance verdict. In a written appeal, Rackovic’s defense asked the court to either acquit him of charges or repeal the verdict.
A defense witness testifying at the trial of three former Bosnian Serb policemen said defendant Miroslav Duka and his reserve police company were on a battlefield from June to December 1992, the time period of his alleged crimes.