Minka Kreho

The Bosnian state court has rejected a prosecution appeal confirmed a verdict acquitting Miodrag Josipovic, Branimir Tesic, Dragomir Vasic, Danilo Zoljic and Radomir Pantic of participation in the partial extermination of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995, the men's lawyers told BIRN.

Trial chamber chairwoman Minka Kreho said a plea agreement on an indictment confirmed in January 2021 had now been accepted. 

Novica Tripkovic was found guilty of having raped two captured Bosniak girls in the Foca area between August 2 and 9, 1992. 

The Bosnian state court found Miodrag Josipovic, Branimir Tesic, Dragomir Vasic, Danilo Zoljic and Radomir Pantic not guilty on Monday of participation in the partial extermination of Bosniaks from Srebrenica in July 1995.

"The prosecution has not proved that the defendants had the intent to commit extermination," said presiding judge Minka Kreho.

More than a year has passed since large-scale trials for crimes committed during the war in Bosnia were put on hold at the state court in Sarajevo due to safety measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, and there is no indication of when they might resume, BIRN has learned.

According to the plan, work on hundreds of unsolved cases should be completed by 2023.

However, the deadline set in the previous national strategy, which envisaged that the most complex war crimes cases would be solved by 2015, was not met, and some legal experts doubt that the new strategy will succeed either.

She said that after the relaxation of the pandemic restrictions, the court decided that trials of up to five defendants could start again on June 1. Those hearings will be conducted in two biggest courtrooms in the state court building in Sarajevo, where appropriate distance between all the participants can be ensured.