Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has filed an Appeal with the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH, contesting the first- instance acquitting Verdict in the case of Zoran Marjanović, born on 07 March 1968 in Rogatica Municipality where he also resides, a citizen of BiH.

By the first- instance Verdict of the Court of BiH dated 25 May 2012, Zoran Marjanović was, pursuant to Article 284(c) of the Criminal Procedure Code of BiH,  acquitted of the charge that he committed the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity in a manner, time and place as described in the operative part of the Verdict, in violation of Article 172(1)(e) and (i) of the Criminal Code of BiH, as read with Article 180(1) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The accused Marjanović Zoran is charged with participation in the perpetration of severe deprivation of physical liberty and enforced disappearance of persons, as a member of the Rogatica Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, in the period from June to the end of 1992, during the attack of the Police and Army of Republika Srpska in the area of ​​Rogatica, which is contrary to fundamental rules of international law.

The accused is charged that, on 19 June 1992, along with several members of the RS Army, he came to the locality of Marina Homora, forcibly taking six members of a Bosniak family to Borike, Rogatica Municipality, where one male civilian was separated from his wife and children and then taken to an unknown location,  subsequently disappearing without a trace.

The accused is charged that during a widespread and systematic attack directed against civilian population, with knowledge of such an attack and as an accomplice, he persecuted civilians and committed severe acts of deprivation of physical liberty and enforced disappearance of persons, which is contrary to the fundamental rules of international law, thereby committing the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity under Article 172, Paragraph 1, item h), in conjunction with items e) and i) of the Criminal Code of BiH, as read with the provisions of Article 29 and Article 180, Paragraph 1 of the same Code.

Dissatisfied with the first-instance acquitting Verdict, on 06 June 2012, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH filed an Appeal with the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH, contesting the first- instance acquitting Verdict. The Appeal was filed on grounds of essential violation of the provisions of criminal procedure and incorrectly or incompletely established state of facts, in violation of Article 299 of the Criminal Procedure Code of BiH.

In its Appeal, the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH moved the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to grant the appeal, revoke the Verdict of the Court of BiH and hold a retrial before the Panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.