Public Security Centre

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 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".

The Bosnian state court found Miodrag Josipovic, Branimir Tesic, Dragomir Vasic, Danilo Zoljic and Radomir Pantic not guilty on Monday of participation in the partial extermination of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995.

"The prosecution has not proved that the defendants had the intent to commit extermination," said presiding judge Minka Kreho.

After a marathon six-year trial, the Bosnian state court on Thursday found former fighters Edhem Godinjak, Medaris Saric and Mirko Bunoza not guilty of war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war.

In closing statements at the Bosnian state court on Thursday, defence lawyers for Medaris Saric and Mirko Bunoza called for them to be found not guilty of participating in a joint criminal enterprise that aimed to detain and kill Serb civilians in villages in the Trnovo area, and of unlawfully detaining, killing and inhumanely treating captured Bosnian Serb Army soldiers from May 1992 to July 1