Bosnian Serb Ex-Officer Pleads Not Guilty at Belgrade Court

The trial of Rajko Kusic, wartime commander of Bosnian Serb Army's Rogatica Brigade, opened in Belgrade Higher Court on Friday with the defendant entering a not-guilty plea.

The indictment claims that Kusic "ordered attacks on civilians and settlements and participated in those attacks that resulted in death, as well as killings, torture, inhumane treatment, suffering and bodily harm, displacement and relocation, and the illegal detention of non-Serbs".

Kusic is claimed to have participated in more than 150 murders, and his alleged crimes were committed in the Rogatica municipality from May 1992 until the end of July 1995.

According to the indictment, Kusic was the commander of the Territorial Defence force in Rogatica, and later the commander of the Rogatica Brigade of Bosnian Serb Army, and at the same time a member of the Crisis Staff of the Serb-run municipality of Rogatica.

The Bosnian prosecution indicted Kusic in 2014, but he was not available for trial as he lives in Serbia. The Serbian prosecution took over the case and issued its own indictment in October 2020.

The trial continues in April.