Bosnian Serb acquitted of war crimes

A Bosnian court acquitted Momčilo Mandić of war crimes during the Bosnian war Wednesday.

Izvor: AP

Thursday, 19.07.2007.

10:24

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Bosnian Serb acquitted of war crimes

Mandić was sentenced in that case to nine years in prison for embezzling US$ 3.3mn from a bank after the war.

During the war, he served as justice minister of the Republic of Srpska. Prosecutors said he was in charge of correctional facilities where non-Serbs were illegally imprisoned.

He was deputy interior minister and later justice minister in the government headed by Vojislav Karadžić, the Bosnian Serb leader who is on the run from an international war crimes indictment.

"The Prosecution has not been able to prove the indictee's guilt beyond reasonable doubt," presiding Judge Davorin Jukić said.

Prosecutors contended that in his capacity as justice minister between May and December 1992, Mandić was responsible for the operations of all correctional institutions in the former Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The indictment alleged that the institutions had characteristics of detention camps. Four prosecution witnesses who were detained in the Serb-held Kula prison, east of Sarajevo, testified last year that they suffered regular beatings and torture.

The prosecution also claimed that Mandić led Bosnian Serb police, army and paramilitaries in an attack on the Bosnian interior ministry’s training centre in the Sarajevo suburb of Vrača in April 1992.

Mandić denied the allegations, claiming that the whole process against him was politicized.

Mandić's wife, his sons, and his brother Mlađen Mandić were in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. Some spectators welcomed the decision with applause.

Refik Serdarević, one of Mandić’s three defense attorneys, said that the Bosnian Court "has confirmed that it can regain the trust of people in the independence of judiciary in Bosnia" and that the trial was "correct and objective."

Both parties have the right to appeal, but prosecutor Behaija Krnjić did not reveal his intentions Wednesday.

He was acquitted on charges of helping fugitives sought by the international court in The Hague, which is investigating war crimes committed as the former Yugoslavia split into independent states.

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