Murder or War Crime? Why Bosnia Had a Dilemma

Jankovic, who was held in detention under Zornic's supervision, was promised that she would be included in a prisoner exchange in the Sarajevo neighbourhood of Grbavica, but instead she was taken to an abandoned house, where she was shot in the head. The same thing happened to Ninkovic.

After Gogalo was taken for questioning and held for four days, he was promised release. Instead he was taken to the same abandoned house and shot several times in the head. All three bodies were then burned at the site.

The three murders were committed in cold blood, and although Zornic didn't pull the trigger himself, the testimonies at the trial established his knowledge of the plans prior to the killings and his participation in the subsequent cover-up.

A facsimile of the 1993 sentence, provided to BIRN by the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo, which has inherited all of the Sarajevo Regional Military Court's archives, shows that Zornic provided the petrol used to set the bodies on fire. The sentence details that Zornic was aware of the crimes that were committed, and that the perpetrators duly reported what they had done each time.

Zornic was found guilty of three counts of murder by command responsibility and the destruction of evidence, and sentenced to ten years and three months in prison. According to the archival documents shown to BIRN by the Cantonal Court, he served a total of three years in custody prior to the trial and after sentencing, between January 7, 1993, and December 30, 1995. He was pardoned not once but three times by the presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

But Zornic told BIRN that he still doesn't think of himself as guilty and remains confused by his trial, claiming that he was just a civilian with no command...