INDICTMENT ISSUED AGAINST THREE PERSONS FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY COMMITTED IN BRČKO AREA

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

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

-            RANKO ČEŠIĆ, born in 1964 in Drvar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with prior convictions, a citizen of the Republic of Serbia,

-            SLOBODAN LJUBIČIĆ, born in 1972 in Brčko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a citizen of the Republic of Serbia, and

-            STOJAN PETROVIĆ, born in 1960 in Brčko, with prior convictions, a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

These accused persons are charged to have committed the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity, referred to in Article 172 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, between April and December of 1992, during the war and armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a widespread and systematic attack of the Army of Republika Srpska, police and paramilitary formations directed against the civilian Bosniak population in the area of Brčko.

Ranko Češić and Slobodan Ljubičić are jointly charged as members/police officers the Republika Srpska Ministry of the Interior Intervention Squad of the Brčko Public Security Station with the commission of the criminal offense of killing four Bosniak civilians and unlawfully and forcibly imprisoning female civilians, whom they subsequently raped and sexually abused.

The accused Stojan Petrović is charged with unlawfully imprisoning a Bosniak woman and raping her, while threatening this victim that he would kill her closest relatives.

The Prosecutor’s Office will prove the allegations of the Indictment by calling 49 witnesses, including protected witnesses and five (5) expert witnesses, as well as by submitting about 130 pieces of material evidence.

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