Territorial Defence

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".

Ljubljana – The ten-day war for Slovenian independence started on 26 June 1991, after the country declared its independence. The defence against the Yugoslav People’s Army was the result of good preparation for armed combat, appropriate tactics, high military morale, home ground, and local support, according to historians.

The trial of Rajko Kusic, wartime commander of Bosnian Serb Army's Rogatica Brigade, opened in Belgrade Higher Court on Friday with the defendant entering a not-guilty plea.

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

Croatian police said on Tuesday that they have filed a criminal charge accusing an unnamed 73-year-old Croatian citizen of committing a war crime by killing a civilian in the village of Darda in eastern Croatia in March 1992.

Former Territorial Defence fighter Milan Trisic went on trial at the Bosnian state court on Wednesday, accused of committing crimes against humanity in the village of Hranca and in the town of Bratunac in 1992.

He is accused of participating in the persecution of Bosniak civilians from the village and of involvement in murders, detentions, forcible disappearances and torture.

A 'red notice' has been issued by Interpol to alert countries around the world that former Territorial Defence fighter Dusan Spasojevic, who has both Serbian and Bosnian citizenship, is wanted in Bosnia and Herzegovina for war crimes against civilians.

Former Territorial Defence fighter Milan Trisic will go on trial on March 23 for crimes including murders, expulsions, unlawful arrests and pillage, the Bosnian state court decided on Tuesday.

A hearing in the case against wartime Territorial Defence fighter Dusan Spasojevic at the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo was cancelled on Tuesday as his lawyer said he had received a message from the defendant's relatives saying that he had absconded.

"On Friday I got a text message from the relatives: 'He has left,'" said defence lawyer Nenad Rubez.