Three members of a Serb volunteer unit were sentenced for war crimes against civilian population committed in 1992 in the Bosnian town of Bijeljina.
The Trial Chamber of the Special Court in Belgrade sentenced three former members of the volunteer unit to a total of 40 years in prison, since, according to the Chamber’s presiding judge, it was proven beyond any doubt that they killed one civilian and raped and tortured several other civilians of non-Serb nationality.
Dragan Jovic, charged with murder of Rama Avdic, was sentenced to 15 years, while Zoran Djurdjevic and Alen Ristic were sentenced to 13 and 12 years respectively.
The presiding judge of the Trial Chamber Vinka Beraha Nikicevic said in her explanation of the verdict that with this crime the defendants violated the international law and the Geneva Convention.
“During the trial, the prosecution has proven beyond any doubt that the convicted person committed the crime specified in the indictment, although during the main hearing they constantly denied having committed the said crime, blaming each other for it,” explained Nikicevic.
The indictment specifies that the three convicted men on June 14, 1992, entered a Bosniak house near Bijeljina, took the money and other personal belongings, killed the owner of the house Rama Avdic and several times raped his daughter Nizama and daughter-in-law Hajrete.
Then they drove the naked and barefoot women to the village of Ljeljenca, where they raped then again and left them beside the road.
The Bijeljina case was transferred by Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia on the basis of the Law on International Legal Aid in Criminal Matters.
The prosecution has the right to appeal the verdict.
Timeline of events in the case against 13 former Serb fighters charged with committing war crimes in the villages of Cuska, Zahac, Ljubenic and Pavlac in Kosovo in 1999.