The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and HerzegovinaNews
INDICTMENT ISSUED AGAINST TWO PERSONS FOR WAR CRIMES AGAINST CIVILIANS
03.01.2014. 15:04
The indictment was issued against the following persons:
- Joja Plavanjac, born on September 28, 1959 in the municipality of Bosanska Krupa, a citizen of the Republic of Serbia and
- Zdravko Narančić, born on October 3, 1964 in the municipality of Bosanska Krupa, citizen of the Republic of Serbia.
The accused are charged to have, during the war in BiH in 1992, as members of the Army of Republika Srpska, acted contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of August 12, 1949.
The second accused Narančić has, as a member of the Military Police Company of the 11th Krupa Light Infantry Brigade, served as a guard at the elementary school "Petar Kočić" in the municipality of Bosanska Krupa, where the captured Bosniak civilians from the municipalities of Bosanska Krupa, Sanski Most and Bihać were held. In the first half of August 1992, in the afternoon, although he was obliged to protect civilians and to prevent entry and contact of uninvited persons with the captured civilians the accused Narančić allowed entry to the first accused Joja Plavanjac, the captain of the RS Army, who entered dressed in camouflage military uniform and armed with an automatic rifle, and subsequently killed 11 Bosniak civilians.
After the killings, the accused Narančić enabled Joja Plavanjac to leave the school without any obstructions, while the bodies of the killed civilians were taken out of the school in the evening. The bodies were found and exhumed in 2006 from a natural pit known as "Zvečarka" /rattlesnake/ located in Lušci Palanka in the municipality of Sanski Most.
The accused are charged to have violated the rules of international humanitarian law during the war in BiH - the accused Zdravko Narančić by way of aiding, and the accused Joja Plavanjac by murdering 11 civilians thereby committing the criminal offense of War Crimes against Civilians under Article 142, Paragraph 1 in conjunction with Article 24 taken from the SFRY Criminal Code.
The indictment was forwarded to the Court of BiH for confirmation.
This announcement does not prejudice the outcome of the criminal proceedings and does not violate the principle of the presumption of innocence. A person shall be considered innocent of a crime until guilt has been established by a final verdict (Article 3, paragraph 1 of the CPC BiH).
