Serbian Court sentences Bosnian national to 10 years for alleged war crimes

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The War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade Higher Court sentenced a Bosnian national Husein Mujanovic, on Monday, to ten years in prison by a first-instance verdict for alleged war crimes against Serb civilians.

Mujanovic was said to have abused Serb civilians who were detained in a camp in the Hrasnica neighbourhood near Sarajevo, in 1992.

According to the verdict, as the manager of the military detention camp of the Army of the then Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mujanovic illegally detained, inhumanely treated and violated the physical integrity of Serb civilians.

The time Mujanovic spent in custody, since July 2018, was also counted in ten years he got. The first-instance verdict can be appealed to the Court of Appeals.

After the verdict, his wife Mirsada Mujanovic told reporters that the verdict was written in advance.

“The verdict was written even before the trial began. Nothing that the defence proposed was adopted, even their key witness said that he was beaten by another man. This is not a Court, this is a fascist court,” Mirsada Mujanovic said.

Mujanovic's defence attorney Dusan Ignjatovic announced that he would file an appeal to the Court of Appeals.

“We believe that this decision will certainly be the subject of an appeal. We see that the Court was of the opinion that the Prosecution was right, we think the exact opposite and believe that there are reasons why this verdict should not be upheld by the Court of Appeals. We have a man who has been in custody for two years and the detention is still ongoing, so the situation for the defence is not good at the moment,” Ignjatovic said.