Belgrade Higher Court

A defence witness told the war crime trial of wartime fighter Osman Osmanovic at Belgrade Higher Court on Monday that he was held at the jail where the defendant allegedly assaulted prisoners in the Brcko area of Bosnia and Herzegovina but did not see any prisoners being beaten or tortured while he was there.

When the trial of a group of Serb fighters accused of the abductions and killings of passengers who were seized from a train in Bosnia during the war in 1993 continues at Belgrade Higher Court next month, there will be one fewer defendant in the dock.

Ljubisa Vasiljevic, a wartime Serb paramilitary fighter who was one of five defendants in the Strpci trial at Belgrade Higher Court, has died.

Belgrade Higher Court told BIRN that Vasiljevic died on July 6 and that "due to that fact, the court adopted a decision to suspend the proceedings [against him] on August 16, 2021".

Belgrade Higher Court has dismissed a defamation case launched by controversial Kosovo Serb businessman and politician Milan Radoicic against rival Kosovo Serb politician Rada Trajkovic, who accused him of being implicated in the shooting of Oliver Ivanovic in 2018.

The Appeals Court in Belgrade told BIRN that it has partially upheld an appeal from former Bosnian Serb Army soldier Dragomir Kezunovic and given him a lower sentence of five years in prison for crimes committed during the Bosnian war.

The trial of the former commander of Bosnian Serb Army's Sana Brigade, Branko Basara, who is accused of war crimes against Bosnian civilians in the Sanski Most area from April to September 1992, opened at Belgrade Higher Court on Monday.

The trial of Danko Vladicic, a Bosnian Serb who is accused of the murders of Bosniak civilians Ramo and Tima Vranjaca at their home near Foca on August 18, 1992, opened at Belgrade Higher Court on Thursday.

Former employees from the Ripac police station near Bihac testified at the trial of Bosnian Serb Army ex-soldier Dragan Dopudja at Belgrade Higher Court on Wednesday that around 150 Bosnian civilians were detained at an old tractor repair shop in the village of Ripac in June 1992.

The Humanitarian Law Centre NGO said in a report published on Friday that the pandemic slowed down war crimes investigations and trials that were already taking too long to complete in Serbia.

A state of emergency was imposed in Serbia from March 15 to May 6 2020, and war crimes trials resumed at the end of May under special protective measures.

Belgrade Higher Court sentenced Dalibor Krstovic to nine years in prison on Thursday for raping a female Bosniak prisoner while she was being detained at an elementary school in the town of Kalinovik during the war in August 1992.

Judge Zorana Trajkovic said that victim was captured with her two children, aged seven and nine, and that she was a "civilian in a helpless position".