Bosanska Krupa

A state of natural disaster has been declared in Una-Sana Canton, one of ten cantons in Bosnia's Federation entity, after heavy rain.

"Our citizens have had a sleepless night, the situation is extremely difficult," Una-Sana Canton's Prime Minister, Mustafa Ruznic, said, N1 reported.

Many roads have been flooded, cutting off towns from the rest of the country. Photo: N1

Belgrade's Higher Court on Monday sentenced Joja Plavanjac to 15 years in prison and Zdravko Narancic to 7 years in a retrial for their roles in the killings of 11 civilian detainees at a prison in Bosanska Krupa in Bosnia on August 3, 1992.

Plavanjac was convicted of killing the prisoners and Narancic of helping him.

The Bosnian state prosecution on Wednesday charged Milorad Kotur and Dusan Culibrk with wartime crimes including the killing of detainees from the Omarska prison camp.

"The accused are charged with the murder of 44 detainees from the Omarska camp, committed at Donji Dubovik [near the town of Bosanska Krupa] in the summer of 1992," the prosecution said in a statement.

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court has upheld the first-instance verdict acquitting ex-policemen Jadranko Saran, Samir Sabic and Zijad Kadic of wartime crimes against civilians and prisoners of war, one of the men's lawyers told BIRN on Wednesday.

"The court does not work slowly. It acts on all indictments filed by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina without delay and has the capacity to process them. However, the indictment filing dynamics and timing comes under the exclusive responsibility of the Bosnian state prosecution," the state court said.

The Bosnian prosecution on Tuesday appealed against the first-instance verdict acquitting former policemen Jadranko Saran, Samir Sabic and Zijad Kadic of unlawfully detaining civilians, as well as murder and inhumane treatment at several detention facilities in Bosanska Krupa between September 1995 and July 1996.

They were also cleared of unlawfully postponing detainees' release.

The prosecution in the trial of former Bosnian Serb Army soldiers Joja Plavanjac and Zdravko Narancic urged Belgrade Higher Court on Thursday to convict both defendants of committing crimes against Bosniak civilian prisoners during the Bosnian war.

Belgrade Appeals Court has reduced the sentence handed down to Ranka Tomic, a former captain of the Bosnian Serb Army's Petrovac Women's Front, from five to three years in prison.

Tomic was convicted in November 2018 of participation in the assault and killing of the captured Bosnian Army nurse, Karmena Kamencic.

Atif Dudakovic outside court. Photo: BIRN.

The trial of Atif Dudakovic opened on Monday at the Bosnian state court, with the former commander and 16 Bosnian Army soldiers accused of participating in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at removing the Serb population from the Bosanski Petrovac, Kljuc, Bosanska Krupa and Sanski Most areas during the Bosnian war.

The new mayor of Velika Kladusa, Fikret Abdic, who has served a prison sentence for war crimes, ran into controversy on Tuesday when he visited Sarajevo for the first time in 23 years to pick up his mandate certificate.