The Appellate Council of the Court of BiH rejected the appeals by the defense of Mensur Memić, Nedžad Hodžić and Nihad Bojadžić as ungrounded, and it confirmed the first-instance verdict which sentenced them to 37 years in prison in total for the crimes committed in the village Trusina near Konjic.
Hodžić was sentenced to 12, Memić to ten, and Bojadžić to 15 years in prison. Dževad Salčin and Senad Hakalović were previously acquitted due to the lack of evidence.
According to the first-instance verdict from September 2015, Bojadžić was leading the attack on Trusina on April 16, 1993, when 15 civilians and seven members of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) were killed, and two were wounded, including two children.
The Appellate Council concluded that Bojadžić, as the deputy commandant of the detachment “Zulfikar” of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, ordered the soldiers to attack Trusina in the morning hours of April 16, 1993. He also ordered that no one must stay alive, and he was leading the attack from the nearby hill, not paying attention to civil and military targets.
Memić, a former member of the detachment “Zulfikar”, is condemned for participating in the execution of six members of HVO who turned themselves in. Hodžić, also a member of that detachment, lined up the firing squad, issued an order to shoot, and participated in the executions.
This was the longest first-instance trial before the Court of BiH. The accused were arrested in 2009 and their trial began one year later. This case also included Zulfikar Ališpago, former commandant of the detachment “Zulfikar”, against whom the procedure has been separated due to illness. Appeal on this verdict is not possible.
(Source: faktor.ba)
