Croatian Defence Council

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Friday raised former Croatian Defence Council brigade commander Mensur Djakic's sentence from two to eight years in prison.

A spokesperson for Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that the German Chancellor was not familiar with the nationalist song that was performed at the Croatian Democratic Union rally that she attended on Saturday, and was not informed about the content of the event's musical programme in advance.

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.

The verdict acquitting former Croatian Defence Council commander Mile Puljic, who was cleared of crimes against prisoners in Mostar in 1993 and 1994, was quashed and a retrial ordered.

Several events are being held in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday and Friday to commemorate the death of former Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak, a year after he swallowed poison in the courtroom while the verdict finding him guilty of war crimes was being read out.

A Croatian artist is exhibiting a painting of Bosnian Croat general Slobodan Praljak taking poison after the Hague Tribunal convicted him last year of committing war crimes against Bosniaks in the 1990s.

Bosnia’s Constitutional Court will hear an appeal filed by the defence of former Croatian Defence Council fighter Indira Kameric, who was sentenced to four years in prison for crimes against civilian detainees.

Eleven former Croatian Defence Council fighters went on trial for the torture, beating and sexual abuse of Bosniak civilian detainees in Mostar in 1992 and 1993.

The president of the Croatian Journalists’ Association quit after refusing to revoke a decision to award a reporter accused of biased coverage of Bosnian Croat military chief Slobodan Praljak’s war crimes conviction.

Two journalists are giving back awards to the Croatian Journalists’ Association in protest after it honoured a reporter who they accuse of favouring war criminal Slobodan Praljak, who committed suicide in court.