Bosnian Croat War Crimes Defendant Dies Before Verdict

The Bosnian state court told BIRN on Thursday that it had received a death certificate for Ivica Markovic, who passed away at the beginning of July.

"As it has been determined during the criminal proceedings that the defendant died, the court has made a decision to terminate the proceedings against defendant Ivica Markovic," the court said.

Markovic was charged alongside another former Croatian Defence Council fighter, Mile Pazin.

The indictment accused the two men of having arrested and physically and psychologically mistreated civilians including women and children who were detained at the Branko Sotra school building in Crnici in the Stolac area and then transferred to detention facilities in Djulici and Kaplan Mahala in the summer of 1993.

The trial of Pazin will continue.

Former Croatian Defence Council members Vid Kresic and Josip Kresic are also on trial in the same case, accused of having physically and psychologically mistreated civilians who were held at the Kostana Hospital in Stolac.