Serbia Again Convicts Bosnian Serb Ex-Policeman of Torturing Prisoners

Belgrade Higher Court found Milorad Jovanovic guilty on Friday of torturing non-Serb civilian prisoners, one of whom died as a consequence, who were being detained at the Simo Miljus Memorial Museum in Lusci Palanka in the Sanski Most area of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 1992. The court sentenced him to nine years in jail.

The verdict repeated his sentence in his first trial in February 2021, which the Belgrade Appeal Court dismissed, ordering a retrial

Judge Vinka Beraha Nikicevic said the court took into account that it could not question all the relevant witnesses.

"They were called to testify directly or via a video conference, but this was not possible," Nikicevic said, noting that some of them had died meanwhile, while others live in Germany or Switzerland and could not be found.

"Even without their presence [as witnesses], we had witnesses who testified and were decisive that Milorad Jovanovic did what he is accused of," she added.

According to the indictment, the Bosnian Serb reservist policeman together with his commander Slavko Vukovic, who has since died, and other unnamed police officers, forcibly brought non-Serbs from villages near Sanski Most in June and July 1992 to the museum in Lusci Palanka where they were held.

In order to get information from them about possession of weapons or about a group allegedly resisting Bosnian Serb forces, Jovanovic hit the prisoners with his fists, a shotgun and other objects, kicked them, tied them to chairs or to beams on the ceiling and beat them.

He also forced one of the prisoners, Dedo Dervisevic, to be baptised as an Orthodox Christian, and made him crawl on the floor and kiss his boots. Dervisevic died as a result of the beating.

At the...