On 16 October 2020 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina delivered a judgment in the case of Srećko Aćimović, finding the accused Srećko Aćimović guilty of the criminal offense of Genocide under Article 141 of Criminal Code of the Socialistic Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (CC SFRY), as read with Article 24 of the same Code (aiding and abetting). The Court sentenced him to 9 (nine) years of imprisonment. Pursuant to Article 50(1) CC SFRY, the time the accused spent in pre-trial custody, from the moment of his arrest on 30 November 2015, to 29 December 2015, shall be credited towards his sentence of imprisonment.
The accused Srećko Aćimović has been found guilty that during a widespread and systematic attack launched between 6 July 1995 and 1 November 1995 by VRS and RS MUP members against Bosniaks in the UN safe area of Srebrenica he aided and abetted in the furtherance of common goal, joint criminal enterprise – to kill the male members of a group of Bosniaks who as Bosniaks of Eastern Bosnia constituted a significant part of that ethnic group, thus aiding and abetting in the partial extermination of Bosniaks as a national, religious and ethnic group.
According to the Trial Chamber, presided over by Judge Stanisa Gluhajic, Acimovic was found guilty because, as commander of the Second Battalion of the Zvornik Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), he knowingly assisted members of the joint criminal group between 14 and 16 July 1995. an enterprise whose plan and goal was to imprison and summarily execute and bury able-bodied Bosniak men from the Srebrenica enclave.
In addition, their plan and goal was to forcibly relocate women, children and the elderly from the enclave, thus destroying them as a group.
In the explanation of the verdict, Judge Gluhajic stated that it was beyond any doubt proven that the Accused Acimovic “knowingly provided assistance in committing the plan, ie committing genocide against Bosniaks”.
”The accused was aware that they would be killed, but then he knowingly committed actions to implement the plan to commit genocide. Acting on an order he received from the Zvornik Brigade command, the accused provided ammunition and ordered the prisoners to be transported to the Drina bank in Kozluk, where they were killed at a gravel site and then buried. On that day, July 15, 1995, 818 men from Srebrenica were killed,” stated Gluhajic.
(Photo: Birn)
