Bosnian Army

The Constitutional Court on Tuesday rejected Nihad Bojadzic's appeal against verdicts under which he was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison for crimes committed in 1993 during the war in Jablanica and in the village of Trusina, near Konjic.

The Constitutional Court described Bojadzic's appeal as "unfounded".

The third-instance chamber of the Bosnian state court on Friday sentenced Muhamed Sisic to ten years in prison and Tarik Sisic and Aziz Susa to eight years each for wartime crimes in the village of Kukavice in the Rogatica municipality in August 1992.

The attack on Kukavice by Bosnian Army troops saw 21 Serb civilians killed, including two children, and 39 wounded.

Defence lawyers for Ivan Kraljevic, Mato Jelcic, Stojan Odak, Vice Bebek and Vinko Radisic, who all were found guilty of mistreating Bosniak civilian detainees at a military investigative prison in Ljubuski between April 1993 and March 1994, began an appeal against their convictions at the Bosnian state court on Tuesday.

The Bosnian state court. Photo: BIRN.

The first prosecution witness told the Bosnian state court on the opening day of the trial of eight former Bosnian Army soldiers on Friday that he saw the corpses of the victims at a secondary school gym in Krizancevo Selo, near Vitez, on December 22, 1993.

Atif Dudakovic outside court. Photo: BIRN.

The trial of Atif Dudakovic opened on Monday at the Bosnian state court, with the former commander and 16 Bosnian Army soldiers accused of participating in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at removing the Serb population from the Bosanski Petrovac, Kljuc, Bosanska Krupa and Sanski Most areas during the Bosnian war.

Vasvija Vidovic, a lawyer who has represented former Bosnian Army soldiers at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Bosnian state court, argued that defendants find themselves difficult financial situations because trials are long-running and very expensive.

The retrial of former Bosnian Army soldiers Samir Kesmer and Mirsad Menzilovic, accused of raping a Serb minor in Sarajevo in May 1993, opened at the Bosnian state court.

Eight former Bosnian Army servicemen accused of the killings of more than 14 Croats in the village of Krizancevo Selo near Vitez in 1993 were charged with war crimes against prisoners of war and civilians.

Three former Bosnian Army soldiers convicted of crimes against Croat civilian detainees in the Mostar area in 1993 had their sentences increased on appeal.

State Investigation and Protection Agency officers arrested former general Ramiz Drekovic on Wednesday on suspicion of committing a war crime against civilians by ordering artillery attacks on the town of Kalinovik in 1995.