Bosnian Army Ex-Soldiers Convicted of Crimes Against Serb Prisoners

The Sarajevo Cantonal Court has sentenced Mustafa Divjan to ten years in prison and Alija Gazibara to two years for crimes against civilians in the Ilidza area during wartime, the court told BIRN.

Divjan was found guilty of killing two Serb civilian prisoners on April 22, 1993 while he was a member of the Bosnian Army's Fourth Motorised Brigade.

At the time, Divjan was supervising the work of civilian prisoners who had been brought from the Silos and Krupa detention camps in the Hadzici municipality to a location near the Butmir Agricultural Institute in the Ilidza municipality in order to do forced labour.

After hearing that several of them had fled, he started shooting with an automatic rifle at two prisoners from close range. The two men died on the spot.

According to the verdict, Gazibara, who was also a member of the Bosnian Army's Fourth Motorised Brigade, inflicted severe mental and physical pain on prisoners.

The verdict can be appealed at the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.