Volarska Company

Sretko Pavic, who was convicted in July this year of war crimes against civilians, did not report to prison to serve his 11-year sentence, the Bosnian state court has confirmed.

Pavic was obliged to start serving his prison term by November 30, but filed a motion requesting a postponement.

The retrial of Sretko Pavic opened on Tuesday at the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court after the first-instance verdict sentencing him to 13 years in prison for crimes against humanity was quashed.

Sretko Pavic, a former member of the Volarska Company with the Sixth Ljubija Battalion of the Bosnian Serb Army, asked the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Thursday to quash the sentence convicting him of wartime crimes or order a retrial.

The Bosnian state court found Sretko Pavic guilty on Monday of having participated in the murder of five civilians in the village of Rizvanovici in the Prijedor area in the second half of July 1992, and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.

In closing arguments at the Bosnian state court on Monday, Sretko Pavic's defence lawyer said that the defendant should be acquitted of taking five Bosniak civilians to a checkpoint in Rizvanovici in the Prijedor area in the second half of June 1992, detaining them and then killing them.