The Bosnian court rejected a prosecution appeal and cleared ex-fighter Srpko Putivuk of war crimes against villagers in Ilijas, north-east of Sarajevo, in 1992.
The court’s appeals chamber dismissed as unfounded the prosecution’s appeal and confirmed the first instance verdict from 2011, which established that it had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt that Pustivuk committed the crimes he was charged with.
Pustivuk was acquitted of charges that he took part in an attack on the village of Gornja Bioca on May 29, 1992 with a group of ten soldiers from the First Serb Ilijas Brigade which resulted in the deaths of two people and serious injuries to three more, two of whom were minors.
He was also acquitted of charges that together with members of the Bosnian Serb Army and police, he participated in the unlawful detention of Bosniak civilians at a primary school in the village of Gornje Bioce on May 31, 1992.
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.