Croatia to Try Serb Extradited from UK on War Crimes Charges

The retrial of Serb ex-policeman Milenko Maric for committing war crimes against the civilian population will begin on Tuesday in Osijek after he was extradited for the second time in six years from Britain, where he has been living for more than 25 years.

Maric, 63, who was extradited to Croatia on April 5, will be tried alongside 11 others.

He allegedly committed assaulted civilian detainees in the Baranja area in 1991, which at that time was occupied by separatist Serb forces and was part of the unrecognised Serbian Autonomous Region of Krajina.

Maric was tried for the same offences and acquitted in 2017 after being extradited from Britain for the first time. But the Croatian Supreme Court overturned the verdict because of a "significant procedural violation" and sent the case for a retrial, so he was extradited again.

He has denied all the allegations. "In the war, I did only good things. I risked my life to help and protect people," he told British media.

The indictment accuses Maric of "systematically participating in the intimidation and cruel physical and psychological abuse of non-Serb civilian residents of Baranja in the towns of Ceminac, Dubosevica and Beli Manastir in August and September 1991".

It claims that he committed the crime "as a participant in an armed rebellion by part of the Serb population against the constitutional order of the Republic of Croatia".

The indictment states that on August 26, 1991, Maric and two other indictees, Velimir Bertic and Dusan Vuksic, along with several other members of Serbian paramilitary forces, raided a man's house in Beli Manastir, took him to a police station and physically abused him.

Maric is also accused of arresting another man on September 20, 1991...