Persons indicted

1

Rank(s) of person(s) indicted

lower military rank - soldier of the BH Serbian Republic's Army

Indictment date

11/27/2018

Case stage

second instance judgment

Duration of proceedings since trial commencement

2 years 2 months

Witnesses examined

7

Date and outcome of the first instance verdict

07/07/2020

2 years in prison

Date and outcome of decision on appeal

02/05/2021

2 years in prison

Date and outcome of verdict in new trial

Criminal offence

war crime against civilian population under article 142 (1) of the FRY Criminal Act

Background facts

In late May 1992, the BH Serbian Republic's military and police forces arrested a large number of Bosniak male civilians from villages Velagići, Pudin Han, Sanica, Krasulje and several others in the area of Ključ. The captives - among whom were BB, VV, GG, DD, ĐĐ and EE - were transferred to the premises of Nikola Mačkić Elementary School in Ključ. This convicted, AA, who was present in the school building, subjected the captives to a campaign of physical torture, which included severe beating with hands, batons and other objects all over the body, as well as kicking with army boots. As he approached DD, AA put a knife under the victim's throat threatening to butcher him. Overcome with terror, BB and ĐĐ lost consciousness several times. As they regained consciousness, AA would proceed with his torture and humiliation campaign, which persisted throughout the whole day. In the evening, the victims were loaded into buses and driven to the detention camp in village Sitnica, in the area of Ključ. In one of the buses was BB, who had been carried in by other captives as he was unable to walk due to the physical torture he had suffered. AA approached the victim with a baton and beat him again all over the body. As BB tried to take shelter under a bus seat, AA produced his knife and stabbed the victim in the back, thereby causing him heavy bleeding, as well as great physical and mental suffering. By engaging in the foregoing acts against civilian persons in the course of a non-international armed conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, specifically in the inhumane treatment which caused the victims intense suffering and injuries to their health and bodily integrity, AA committed serious breaches of international law.

Procedural remarks

In line with article 47 (1) of the Act on International Legal Assistance in Criminal matters, the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor conformed the Una-Sana Cantonal Prosecutor's confirmed indictment (ref. Т01 0 КТRZ 0015446 13) of 05/06/2018 to the laws of the Republic of Serbia.