Bosnia’s Justice Minister, Josip Grubesa, defended his decision to allow Marko Radic, a convicted war criminal, to serve his sentence in Zagreb, Croatia, where his sentence was almost halved, saying it was in accordance with the law.
“What I had to do, when one has dual citizenship as Radic does, was to approve that transfer. When we talk about transfers, one can be transferred into their country of residence to serve the rest of their sentence,” Grubesa said speaking to N1 about Marko Radic whose sentence was cut from 21 to 12.5 years by the Zagreb District Court.
He added that Bosnia’s Justice Ministry cannot influence the decision of other country’s courts on the length of the sentence they will give the convicts.
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During the early 1992-1995 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Marko Radic was the commander of the 1st Bijelo Polje Battalion of the 2nd HVO Brigade. According to the sentence, he took part in the setting up of prisons, ordered the unlawful arrest of a number of Bosniak civilians, and was responsible for using men for forced labour and keeping them in brutal, humiliating and inhumane conditions.
Bosnia sentenced him to 21 years behind bars. The verdict is based on a ruling by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) against six top officials of the wartime unrecognised Bosnian Croat statelet of Herzeg-Bosnia (HB).
The Justice Minister refused to say whether he would ask for Radic’s return to Bosnia for the full implementation of his sentence.
