Hambarine

Boro Milojica's defence lawyer Ranko Dakic told BIRN that an appeal to reduce the former Bosnian Serb Army soldier's 20-year sentence has been rejected by the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court.

The retrial of Sretko Pavic opened on Tuesday at the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court after the first-instance verdict sentencing him to 13 years in prison for crimes against humanity was quashed.

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Thursday quashed the first-instance verdict that sentenced Bosnian Serb ex-soldier Boro Milojica to eight years in prison for crimes against humanity in the Prijedor area and acquitted his fellow ex-serviceman Zelisav Rivic, and ordered a new trial.

The Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Thursday found Boro Milojica, a former member of the 6th Ljubija Battalion of the Bosnian Serb Army, guilty on two counts of the murder of Bosniak civilians in the village of Hambarine in the Prijedor area in July 1992.

The Missing Persons Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina said that a collective funeral will be held at Vedro Polje stadium in the village of Hambarine near Prijedor on July 20, and the victims' bodies will then be buried at locations chosen by their families.

The defendants (on the right, first and second rows) with their lawyers in court. Photo: Bosnian state court.