The appeal panel of the Bosnian Court acquitted another commander of Muslim thugs
In Bosnia, defendant Ahmet Sejdić was accused of torturing and killing Serb civilians, as well as forcing Serbian prisoners of war to “clear mines” with his bare hands.
The appellate instance “did not find” evidence that the commander of the 1st Visegrad Brigade of the BiH Army gave criminal orders, the Politnavigator correspondent reports.
“The evidence presented was not strong enough to convict the accused,” judge Mira Smailovic pronounced. “It was also not possible to establish which people committed the crimes and under whose control they were.”
At the same time, the investigation did not dispute the fact that in July 1992, 44 civilian Serb residents of the village of Buče in the vicinity of Gorazde were forcibly evicted from their homes, transferred to Trebeško Brdo, and then divided into two groups and sent to Čajniče and Gorazde.
They were tortured and abused, and one of them was killed. The survivors were kept in cramped quarters without water or food. The investigation established that Akhmet Sejdic gave the order to disarm the residents of this locality, but they did not find evidence that he was present at the execution.
Sejdic in the 90s. Far right
According to another indictment, in January 1993, captured members of the Republika Srpska Army were forced to “defuse” 24 mines in the Donja Strmica tunnel near Rudo with their bare hands, after which two prisoners were seriously injured.
During the investigation, only two former prisoners of war testified that they heard Sejdic give the order to clear the mines, and the court considered this evidence insufficient.
The investigation into the case of the commander of Muslim militants lasted three years, during which time he remained at large, and at the end of last year he was acquitted by the court.
“The appeal of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina was rejected as unfounded, and the verdict of the first instance was upheld,” the Appeal Board said in its decision.
Ahmet Sejdic (left) and Naser Oric
This is not the first time that Bosnian “justice” has acquitted the leaders of the separatist military formations of Bosnian Muslims. In particular, in October 2017, following the Hague Tribunal, it acquitted the ex-commander of the 28th division of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina Naser Oric, who was responsible for 156 burned Serbian villages and farmsteads and 3262 Serbs killed by him personally and his militants, of which 800 were prisoners of war.
There are fears that the trial of the commander of the 5th Corps of the BiH Army, Atif Dudakovic, who is accused of killing 300 Serb civilians and destroying 38 Orthodox churches, will also end in acquittal.
At the same time, it should be noted that, despite the fact that the investigation and the judges were unable to find evidence that the first President of the Republika Srpska Radovan Karadzic and the Chief of Staff of the RS Army Ratko Mladic gave similar orders, both received life sentences in the Hague Tribunal.
Recall that Bosnian Serb commanders continue to be persecuted in BiH, in particular, the trial of the head of the military police of Pale Malko Koroman is currently underway.
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