SARAJEVO, 25. JAN. 2016 – Former Srebrenica Bosniak(Moslem) army commander Naser Oric went on trial in Sarajevo for war crimes, accused of being responsible for killing three Serbs in 1992 . Oric’s trial opened at the state court in the Bosnian capital with the reading of the indictment accusing him and former Bosnian Army soldier Sabahudin Muhic of killing three Serb captives in the villages of Zalazje, Lolici and Kunjerac in 1992. “The victims were prisoners of war. They surrendered their weapons and were under the control of the Srebrenica Territorial Defence forces. Oric and Muhic knew they were violating the Geneva conventions, because the prisoners were at their mercy,” said prosecutor Miroslav Janjic. Oric is also wanted in Serbia for war crimes. In June last year he was arrested on the French-Swiss border at the request of the Serbian prosecution, which wanted to charge him with crimes in Srebrenica. But he was ultimately extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina, not to Serbia. The trial started despite objections by Oric’s defence which claimed that he had already been tried for and acquitted of the same crimes by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. But the UN court has said the indictment filed in Bosnia and Herzegovina was significantly different from the charges of which he was acquitted at the Hague Tribunal. It said the Hague Tribunal acquitted Oric of command responsibility for the murder of one person at the police station in Srebrenica and six more people in the local municipality building. According to the charges, Oric killed one of the prisoners of war by stabbing him in the neck after hitting him in the leg. He also hit another prisoner who was then killed by Muhic, while the third prisoner was also killed by the soldier, the prosecution alleges. Oric’s defence claimed that the Bosnian investigation only lasted a month, which was strange for much lesser crimes, let alone a war crimes case. The prosecution asked for measures which forbid Oric from travelling outside Bosnia’s Federation entity to remain in place, but the defence objected. Oric also addressed the court and said that he has not threatened any witnesses and cannot see a reason for further limits on his movement. The former Srebrenica commander’s indictment in Bosnia and Herzegovina drew criticism from both Serb victims of the war – who claimed the charges were too modest – and from Bosniak victims of Serb crimes.
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