Bosnian court convicts 7 ex-army members of war crimes

Sarajevo’s court hands down combined 36-year sentence to seven former Bosnian Army members for prisoner abuse during Bosnian War

On Monday, the Bosnian state court in Sarajevo convicted seven former members of the Bosnian Army and military police, sentencing them to a combined 36 years in prison for their roles in the abuse of civilian detainees and prisoners of war.

This landmark ruling addresses the crimes committed at an improvised detention facility in Buzim during the Bosnian War in 1994-95.

The court found Vahid Bajraktarevic, Senad Salkic, Zijad Nanic, Esad Kudelic, Hasan Mustafic, Samir and Husein Isakovic guilty of inflicting severe physical violence on detainees, including minors, at the former Radoc hotel, which functioned as a makeshift prison.

Bajraktarevic received the most severe sentence of 12 years, while the others received sentences ranging from one and a half to 8 years. The court acquitted Nedzad Bapic.

Presiding judge Darko Samardzic declared that the existence of the Radoc hotel as an improvised prison was undeniable, as was its guarding by the 505th Buzim Brigade’s military police. He added that the chamber had clear and unambiguous witness testimonies proving the inhumane treatment of civilians by the defendants.

Nanic and Kudelic held significant roles within the brigade, with Nanic as the assistant commander for security and Kudelic as the commander of the military police squad. Bajraktarevic, Salkic, Mustafic, and the Isakovic brothers were members of this unit.

This first-instance judgment allows for an appeal. Separately, the court previously sentenced Mehmed Alesevic, another military police officer from the same brigade to five years in prison in November 2022.

Source: Newsroom