Bosnia Rejects Serb Paramilitary’s Crimes Against Humanity Appeal

The Constitutional Court rejected as inadmissible the appeal filed by Gojko Jankovic, the leader of a Serb paramilitary group from the town of Foca, who was sentenced to 34 years in prison for the unlawful detention, murder and torture of Bosniaks and the rape and sexual enslavement of young women and girls, one of whom was just 12.

"Gojko Jankovic's appeal is hereby rejected as inadmissible," the Constitutional Court said in its decision delivered on September 19 but made public on Friday.

Jankovic filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court after the state court refused in 2017 to grant his request to order a new trial.

He called for a new trial because of what he said were new relevant facts and evidence, and because he argued that the criminal code of the former Yugoslavia, which was in force at the time his crimes were committed and is more lenient, should have been applied at his trial.

Jankovic, who led a small paramilitary group from April 1992 that operated within the Fourth Battalion of the Bosnian Serb Army's Foca Tactical Group, was sentenced to 34 years in prison for crimes against humanity in November 2007.

He was found guilty of rape, torture and sexually enslaving women, including the rape of a 12-year-old and the multiple rape of other several girls aged 15, 16 and 17.

Jankovic held one of his victims in sexual enslavement at several locations in Foca and its surroundings for several months.

He was also found guilty of the forcible relocation of the local population in the Foca area, unlawful detention and the murder and torture of Bosniaks.

The indictment against Jankovic was originally filed at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

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