TWO PERSONS SUSPECTED OF CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY COMMITTED IN 1992 IN FOČA AREA DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY ON ORDER OF BIH PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE

These suspects are charged with the criminal offences of murder, inhumane treatment and looting of Bosniak civilians in the area of ​​Foča and its surroundings, in the summer of 1992.

Acting on an order of a Prosecutor from the Special Department for War Crimes, police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency – SIPA have deprived the following suspects of their liberty in the area of Foča: 

-      Spomenko Novović, born in 1966 in Foča

-   Borislav Pjano, born in 1968 in Foča, employed as an active police officer of the Republika Srpska Ministry of the Interior in Foča.

The suspects are under investigation by the Special Department for War Crimes and they are charged with acting contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, during a widespread and systematic attack of the Republika Srpska Army and police on the Bosniak civilian population in Foča and its surroundings, and committing the criminal offence of Crimes against Humanity, referred to in Article 172 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The suspect Novović is charged with coming to the house of a Bosniak civilian in the summer of 1992, where there were five persons, mostly elderly men and women born around 1920, and personally killing them, using side arms, and then setting fire to the house together with the bodies of the killed civilians.

Also, the suspect Novović is charged with participating in the murder of one Bosniak woman, as well as in inhumane treatment of two civilians.

The suspect Pjano is charged with participating personally and directly, together with other persons, in the illegal detention of seventeen (17) Bosniak civilians, some of whom were minors, after which they took eleven (11) civilians out of the house, whereas they killed the remaining civilians in the house by shooting at them from firearms and throwing a hand grenade at them. Subsequently, they set fire to the house together with the bodies of the killed persons, and they took the remaining civilians into captivity in the area of Foča, from where they were later transferred to the territory controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the area of Trnovo.

Furthermore, the suspect Pjano is charged with inhumane treatment of Bosniak civilians, and with looting of one Bosniak woman, from whom he stole a large amount of gold jewellery.

The aforementioned suspects are charged with committing the criminal offence of Crimes against Humanity, referred to in Article 172 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Once the suspects have been brought before the Prosecutor in charge of this case, the Prosecutor will question the suspects and decide on further activities in the case.