Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry

The Bosnian state prosecution said on Monday that Ranko Cesic, Slobodan Ljubicic and Stojan Petrovic have been charged with committing a crime against humanity in the Brcko area between April and December 1992.

Cesic and Ljubicic are accused of killing four civilian Bosniaks, and of unlawfully and violently detaining female civilians, after which they raped and sexually abused them.

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Thursday confirmed a verdict under which former Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry employee Milisav Ikonic was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape of a woman in Rogatica in July 1992. Former Bosnian Serb soldier Zoran Ilic was acquitted of raping another woman.

Goran Saric's lawyer said on Wednesday that he is suing Bosnia and Herzegovina for 43,000 Bosnian marks (22,000 euros) in damages over the prohibitive restrictions imposed on him while he was on trial and the mental distress he suffered.

Appeals judges confirmed the acquittal of the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry’s special police brigade, Goran Saric, clearing him of involvement in the Srebrenica genocide in 1995.

A defence lawyer for former Serbian State Security Service chief Jovica Stanisic insisted the Red Berets unit was commanded by a Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry officer when it allegedly committed war crimes, not by Belgrade’s security service.