INDICTMENT ISSUED AGAINST TWO PERSONS FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY COMMITTED IN FOČA AREA

These accused persons are charged with crimes committed against Bosniak victims in the area of Foča, in 1992.

A Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes has issued an Indictment against the following persons:

1.   Spomenko Novović, born in 1966 in Foča

2.   Borislav Pjano, born in 1968 in Foča, employed as a police officer of the Republika Srpska Ministry of the Interior in Foča

These accused persons are charged with persecuting civilian population on ethnic and religious grounds and acting contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, during the war and the armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of a widespread and systematic attack by the Republika Srpska Army, police and paramilitary units on the Bosniak civilian population in the Foča area.

The accused Novović is charged with personally killing five elderly Bosniak civilians born around 1932 and earlier, using cold weapon, and then setting fire to the house together with the bodies of the killed civilians and participating in the killing of one elderly civilian, as well as with an inhumane treatment of two elderly Bosniaks. These crimes were committed in the places of Dragočava, Pošajatovići and Šube, in the municipality of Foča, in the summer of 1992.

The accused Pjano is charged with participating in the capture and illegal detention of a group of 17 Bosniaks in Potpeće, in the summer of 1992, after which 11 persons were taken out of the house, and the accused Pjano, together with other persons, personally and directly shot from his firearms and participated in the killing of 6 Bosniaks who remained in the house, after which the perpetrators threw a grenade into the house and then set the house on fire, with the bodies of the killed civilians in it.

The said perpetrators took the group of 11 civilians and two other civilians and transported them by truck into captivity in the area of Foča, from where they were later expelled to the Trnovo area.

Also, the accused Pjano is charged with looting a Bosniak woman at gunpoint, in August of 1992, from whom he stole a larger quantity of family gold jewellery, as well as with inhumane treatment of one captured Bosniak civilian.

These accused persons are charged with the criminal offence of Crimes against Humanity, referred to in Article 172 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Prosecutor’s Office will prove the allegations in the Indictment by calling 54 witnesses and by submitting more than 300 pieces of material evidence.

The Indictment has been forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.