The Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the verdict by which the ten accused for the crimes committed in Bosanski Novi were sentenced to a total of 162 years in prison.
According to the second-instance verdict, which Detektor had access to, the appeals of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office and the defense attorneys of the accused Ranko Balaban, Rajko Karlica, Milenko Brčin, Mirko Odžić, Ratko Goronje, Nikola Reljić, Dragan and Ranko Baltić and Miroslav Kapetanović were rejected as unfounded. The appeal of Ranko Balaban’s wife was also rejected.
The verdict states that Milenko Babić’s defense, and neither the accused personally, filed an appeal against the first-instance verdict, and it is stated that the verdict in relation to him remains unchanged.
During the presentation of appeals against this verdict, Damir Alagić, Babić’s defense attorney, said in the courtroom that he was sure that he had submitted a written appeal, but that he did not know why it had not been submitted to the Council. After a five-minute break, the Council announced that they did not find evidence of the submission of the appeal, and Alagić’s request to explain it was rejected and he was given until Friday to submit evidence of the submission of the appeal.
By the first instance verdict from November 2023, Ranko Balaban, Ratko Goronja, Nikola Reljić, Mirko Odžić, Ranko and Dragan Baltić were sentenced to 18 years each, Rajko Karlica, Milenko Brčin and Milenko Babić to 15 each, while Miroslav Kapetanović was sentenced to nine years in prison for crimes committed in the area of Bosanski Novi, Detektor reports.
In the second-instance verdict, it is stated that by analyzing the testimony of the witnesses, it follows that the witnesses heard gave statements about the entire event, and they were connected with the statements of witnesses who spoke about a segment of the event. According to reports, the defense attorneys contested the statements of witnesses Dragan Balaban, and Stojan and Zoran Kenjal, stating that they were witnesses who concluded a plea agreement.
– It turns out that these are statements that agree with each other, that is, that complement each other in terms of decisive facts, and point to a clear conclusion about the role of the accused. At the same time, the Council observes that the Defense mostly selectively evaluated the statements of the heard witnesses, insisting on certain parts that are not of decisive importance, in contrast to the First Instance Council, which looked at the witnesses’ statements as a whole, finding that they objectively presented their findings regarding the incriminated event – it is added in the judgment of the Appellate Council.
When it comes to the reliability of the witnesses Dragan Balaban, and Stojan and Zoran Kenjal, the Appellate Panel finds that the first-instance court gave a detailed assessment of the credibility of their statements, stating that they are a reliable basis for establishing decisive facts.
Stojan Kenjalo and Balaban were previously sentenced to seven years each, and Zoran Kenjalo to five years in prison.
The court, in its verdict from November last year, established that on June 22, 1992, after the funeral of a murdered Serbian soldier, as an armed group consisting of more than 20 soldiers, they went to the villages of Aliće and Ekiće. There, as it was concluded, they forced the civilian Bosniak population to leave their houses, threatening to kill them if they did not do so, shooting and yelling at them, led them towards the Orthodox cemetery, where they beat the men with butts, fists and feet, while women and children watched it.
– Then they separate about 90 men and take them to the Muslim cemetery, where they are forced to dig a grave and stand around it, after which the armed soldiers were ordered to stand in a firing squad and start shooting – it was stated during the pronouncement of the first instance verdict.
On that occasion, 24 men were killed, and their bodies were found in different locations, considering that the grave was dug up and the bodies transferred into the river. The remains of all those killed have not yet been found.
This judgment is final and cannot be appealed.
