Crimes against humanity

The number of Romanian citizens identified as human trafficking victims has been constant over the past few years, but it went below 1,000 for the first time in 2013, National Agency against Human Trafficking (ANITP) Director Romulus Nicolae Ungureanu said on Wednesday, on occasion of the launch of the national campaign on preventing sexual exploitation.

Prosecutors have asked for between 1.5 months and 13 months in prison for two of three police officers standing trial for beating and torturing a woman while in custody, while asking for the acquittal of a third officer, daily Milliyet reported June 6.

Ten arrested on suspicion of human trafficking

BELGRADE -- The Serbian police have arrested ten people on suspicion that their organized crime group illegally crossed state borders and engaged in human trafficking.

This criminal activity took place between January and mid-May this year, the MUP said on Wednesday.

Albanian police said the four-month investigation was aided by exchanges of information between the office of the prosecutor for serious crimes and US law enforcement agencies.

“Fifteen suspects have been detained while an international warrant has been issued for another one,” the general directorate of police said.

Two unnamed former Bosnian fighters suspected of committing war crimes during the early 1990s conflict, including the torture and murder of civilians, were arrested in the Netherlands.

Four ex-members of the Croatian Defence Council, whose arrests sparked a protest in Kiseljak, are accused of the torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war in 1993.

Six employees of Nigrita Prison in northern Greece – where a 42-year-old Albanian inmate was found dead in his cell on March 27, apparently after a severe beating – are to face a magistrate in Serres on Monday and Tuesday on charges of torture.

Some 876 cases of human trafficking were officially reported in Romania last year, which was down on the figure for 2012 but showed that the problem persists, officials say.

Police in Crete have arrested eight Syrians and one Greek on suspicion of running a human trafficking ring.

The arrests came after authorities found 47 migrants, including 11 children, in homes near Iraklio.

Jocić, accused of organizing murder of journalist, acquitted

BELGRADE -- The Special Court in Belgrade has acquitted Sreten Jocić of the charge that he organized the murder of Croatian journalist and publisher Ivo Pukanić.

Pukanić's associate Niko Franjić also died when a device planted near Pukanić's car exploded, in October 2008.