First Battalion

Ratko Djurkovic told the Bosnian state court on Tuesday that he was innocent of persecuting Bosniak civilians on ethnic and religious grounds in the Ugljevik area from April 1992 to the end of October that year.

"I plead not guilty," Djurkovic said.

The Bosnian state court on Thursday confirmed an indictment charging Radomir Nedic and Ratko Djurkovic with committing crimes against humanity in the Ugljevik area in 1992.

The court had initially refused to confirm the charges last month, but then the prosecution filed a new indictment with new evidence and a revised description of the alleged facts of the case.

The Bosnian state court has refused to confirm the prosecution's indictment charging Radomir Nedic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army's First Majevica Brigade, and Ratko Djurkovic, the commander of the First Battalion of the First Majevica Brigade, with having command responsibility for crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Nikola Jaman, who was a commander of the First Battalion of Osijek Defenders during wartime, testified at Zagreb County Court on Tuesday that he lied in earlier testimony about Branimir Glavas, who is being retried alongside six co-defendants for the killings of Serb civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991.

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.