PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF BIH ISSUED AN INDICTMENT AGAINST TWO PERSONS CHARGING THEM WITH GENOCIDE

A Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes within the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH issued an indictment against the following persons:

- Miodrag Josipović, born on April 28, 1959 in the village Crvica - Srebrenica municipality, residing in Bratunac, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and

- Branimir Tešić, born on May 6, 1955 in Bratunac, residing in the Republic of Serbia, a citizen of BiH and the Republic of Serbia.

The accused are charged with having  knowingly aided and abetted the principal perpetrators of genocide in the period from July 12 to  July 19, 1995 while acting in their respective capacities i.e. Miodrag Josipović as Head of the Public Security Station Bratunac and member of  police HQ in Zvornik PSC, which was located in Bratunac PSS; and Branimir Tešić as Deputy commander of Bratunac Police Station; the period during which the units of the VRS /RS Army/ and RS MoI undertook a widespread and systematic attack directed against the Bosniak civilian population in the UN safe area of Srebrenica within the scope of which up to 40,000 Bosniak civilians were forcibly transferred from the Srebrenica enclave and more than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were summarily executed.

According to the indictment, the accused knowingly aided and abetted the principal perpetrators of genocide in the following manner:

- On July 12 and 13, 1995 Josipović ordered the mobilization of members of the Bratunac PSS and Tešic acting on his orders organized activities for members of Bratunac PS who were engaged in supervision and forcible transfer of civilians from Potočari, the separation of men from their families, and the operation of transport, as well as the incarceration of more than 1,000 Bosniak men and boys aged 16 to 70 in Bratunac.

Once forcibly separated most men were transported to detention facilities in Bratunac, including the elementary school "Vuk Karadžić", the hangar and the stadium in Bratunac.

Due to a large number of prisoners, many Bosniak men were forcibly detained in buses and trucks parked on the streets of Bratunac and guarded by members of the Bratunac PSS. 

- During the night of July 13, 1995 at least 150 Bosniak men were killed. More than 50 of those men were taken out from a hangar located behind the elementary school "Vuk Karadžić" and summarily executed. On the same night two Bosniak male civilians were forced to get off the truck, taken to a nearby garage and killed. One mentally challenged man was taken out of a bus parked in front of the elementary school "Vuk Karadžić" and summarily executed.

In the morning of July 14, 1995 aware of the fact that Bosniak men from Bratunac were being taken by trucks and buses to the execution site in the municipality of Zvornik, they organized the escort by deploying policemen into buses and trucks; The accused Branimir Tešić ordered that five male prisoners be taken out of the hangar to board the bus in which they were transported to the execution site at Orahova. Once all captured Bosniak men left Bratunac the bodies of those killed were collected, taken away and buried in a mass grave in Gologova - a place located in Bratunac municipality.

The accused are charged with having aided and abetted in destruction in part of a group of Bosniaks of Srebrenica representing a national, religious and ethnic group which constituted a significant part of ethnic Bosniaks in Eastern Bosnia, thereby committing the criminal offense of Genocide under Article 171, Paragraphs a) and b) of the Criminal Code of BiH, in conjunction with Article 180, Paragraph 1 and Article 31 of the same Code.

Along with the indictment, the Prosecutor submitted a list of 55 witnesses that the Prosecution intends to question as well as a significant amount of evidence that it intends to present.

The indictment was forwarded to the Court of BiH for confirmation.