The Serbian authorities have paid compensation for the detention and legal costs of former policeman Ilija Jurisic, who was cleared of ordering an attack on a retreating Yugoslav People’s Army convoy in Tuzla in Bosnia in 1992.
After three-and-a-half years in custody in Serbia and a ten-year legal struggle against charges of ordering an attack on retreating Yugoslav troops in Tuzla in 1992, Bosnian ex-policeman Ilija Jurisic recalls how he cleared his name.
While cross-examining Defences expert in history Robert Donia, Ratko Mladics Defence says that the referendum on independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina in February 1992 was unlawful and anti-constitutional, because it was conducted despite opposition by Serbs, as one of the constitutional peoples, and violated the constitutional prohibition of outvoting based on ethnic grounds.
After the first instance verdict against Ilija Jurisic was abolished by a Belgrade appeals court, the Jurisic's Defence is awaiting the next step by the Serbian war crimes prosecutor with much trepidation.
The Appellate Court in Belgrade has overturned the first-instance verdict against former Bosnian security officer Ilija Jurisic and ordered a retrial in a controversial case that has strained relations between Sarajevo and Belgrade.
The Court in Belgrade has not established Ilija Jurisic's criminal responsibility beyond reasonable doubt and the reasons for the conviction, according to the Humanitarian Law Fund, are "unconvincing".