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APPEALS FILED AGAINST FIRST-INSTANCE JUDGMENTS IN GLAMOČ AND LOKANJ WAR CRIMES CASES
15.07.2022. 14:14In the case against Duško Suvar, who is accused of the war crime of rape and sexual abuse of victims of Bosniak nationality in the area of Glamoč in 1992, an appeal was filed against the sentence of six years in prison, which was imposed by the first-instance judgment, as well as the ruling on the property claim of the injured victims. The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH maintains that the gravity of the committed crime requires a stricter punishment, as well as that the court should grant and accept the compensation claims of the injured victims, and because of the aforementioned, the appeal has been filed against the judgment.
In addition, the prosecutor in charge of the case for crimes against humanity against victims of Bosniak nationality in Lokanje near Zvornik, in 1992, filed an appeal against the first-instance judgment.
According to the judgment in the Goran Maksimović et al. case, the four defendants were sentenced to prison terms - one of them to 8 and three of them to 15 years in prison, and four other defendants were acquitted. An appeal was filed against the acquittal part of the judgment, as well as the amount of the sentence imposed on the accused who were found guilty.
In the war crime committed against a column of civilians in Lokanj, 86 civilian victims were captured, 67 of whom were killed.
The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH maintains that all the accused should be convicted, as well as that the crimes committed should be sanctioned with a more severe punishment, and because of this an appeal has been filed against the first-instance judgment.
Both appeals from the Special Department for War Crimes were submitted to the Court of BiH within the legal deadline.
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).