Bosnian Serb Army

The Serbian Prosecutor's Office for War Crimes urged Belgrade Higher Court on Tuesday to convict four defendants accused of involvement in the abduction and subsequent killing of passengers from a train at Strpci station in February 1993 and give them "the maximum prison sentences".

Presenting its closing statement to the Bosnian state court on Friday, the prosecution said it had proved during the trial that Momcilo Tesic, a former military policeman with the Bosnian Serb Army's Vlasenica Brigade, is guilty of participating in the murders of 21 Bosniak men from Srebrenica in July 1995.

The Bosnian state court has rejected a prosecution appeal confirmed a verdict acquitting Miodrag Josipovic, Branimir Tesic, Dragomir Vasic, Danilo Zoljic and Radomir Pantic of participation in the partial extermination of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995, the men's lawyers told BIRN.

"The Supreme Court of Republika Srpska has issued a verdict in the case of Milenko Gojgolovic, confirming the decision of the District Court in East Sarajevo," the court told BIRN.

The defence lawyer for Veljko Papic, the wartime commander of the Third Company of the Bosnian Serb Army's Sarajevo-Romanija Corps' First Battalion, told BIRN that an appeal has been filed against the verdict jailing him for two years for crimes against the civilian population in Sarajevo in 1993 and 1994.

The prosecution has also appealed, asking for a longer sentence.

The Bosnian state court said on Thursday that a prosecution appeal against the verdict acquitting former fighters Edhem Godinjak, Medaris Saric and Mirko Bunoza, who had been accused of war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war, has been rejected as "unfounded".

Mourners gathered at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre on Monday to commemorate the 27th anniversary of the July 1995 genocide and attend the burial of 50 more victims of the mass killings of more than 7,000 Bosniak men and boys.

Nationalist organisation Eastern Alternative said it will screen a film about the "liberation of Srebrenica" by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995, a documentary including a speech by war criminal Ratko Mladic, in Srebrenica on July 11, the same day as the 27th anniversary of the genocide of Bosniaks will be commemorated nearby.

Nikola Koprivica, alias Nidza, pleaded not guilty at the Bosnian state court on Tuesday to the charge that he committed a crime against humanity in the village of Novoseoci in September 1992.

"I didn't do it, nor was I there at all," the defendant told the plea hearing.

The first hearing in the trial of wartime Bosnian Serb Army Drina Corps commander Milenko Zivanovic, accused of crimes against Bosniaks from Srebrenica in 1995, was postponed by Belgrade Higher Court on Monday so Serbian officials can consider the offer of a formal transfer of the case from Bosnia and Herzegovina.