Bosniak Ex-Policeman Appeals Prisoner Torture Conviction

Kahro Vejzovic's defence appealed to the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Friday to revise the verdict convicting him of torturing captured Serb civilians in Stupari between June and September 1992 and acquit him of all the charges.

The court was told during the trial that Vejzovic hit and kicked the Serb prisoners in their heads and genitals using his fists, boots, a baton and a rifle butt, put a pistol and a knife to their throats, threatened them and forced them to eat paper.

Vejzovic was acquitted under a first-instance verdict in August 2018, but convicted under a second-instance verdict in May this year after a partial retrial.

His lawyer Rifat Konjic filed an appeal against the second-instance verdict because he claimed that there had been violations of legal provisions on criminal proceedings and that facts had been wrongly and incompletely determined.

"We maintain our proposal for the third-instance appeals chamber to revise the verdict on the grounds that we have listed and acquit the defendant of all charges," Konjic said.

The prosecution urged the court to reject the defence's appeal and uphold the second-instance verdict convicting Vejzovic.

The court will hand down its decision at a later date.