Medical Tests Delay Bosnian Serb General’s Massacre Trial Again

Belgrade Higher Court has been waiting since April for the results of tests to determine whether Novak Djukic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army's Ozren Tactical Group, can appear in court, again delaying the long-running proceedings in the case, BIRN has learned.

Djukic was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 by the Bosnian state court, which found him guilty of ordering the shelling of the Kapija Gate area of the town of Tuzla on May 25, 1995. A total of 71 people, most of them young, were killed.

But when Djukic was due to start serving his sentence, he did not turn up. His defence said that he was undergoing medical treatment in Serbia.

Djukic is a Serbia citizen, which means he cannot be extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia was then asked to take over the enforcement of the verdict under a legal cooperation agreement between the two countries.

However, due to his medical condition, Belgrade Higher Court has been postponing its decision in the case for several years.

His lawyer Milorad Konstantinovic told the court in 2018 that Djukic had been "hospitalised for psychiatric problems", but no more details about his condition have been made public.

In April this year, the court ordered new tests to be carried out in order to establish whether he can appear or not. More than two-and-a-half months later, the results had not been received, so on July 2, the court ordered them to be provided as soon as possible.

Another two-and-a-half months later, court experts said the results had not been signed off because one of the expert commission member was abroad, and at the end of October, the results had still not arrived due to another commission member's illness.

The Djukic case has now been at the...