The High Court in Belgrade issued a verdict in a repeated proceeding acquitting Milenko Karlica of the charge that he participated in the forced displacement of civilians from the villages of Maslovare, Alići and Ekići, in the Bosanski Novi municipality, on June 22, 1992.
As stated in the statement of the Fund for Humanitarian Law, Karlica was initially accused of organizing attacks on these villages, commanding other participants and killing civilians.
In a decision from May 2026, the Court of Appeal in Belgrade acquitted Karlica of those charges, while annulling the verdict in the part related to the forced displacement of civilians and sent the case back for a retrial, writes Detektor.ba.
In the new verdict, as stated by the Fund, it is stated that Karlica joined a group of 20 other people solely with the aim of disarming the Muslim population, in circumstances of anger and resentment among the Serbian population due to the death of the Serbian soldier Radenko Baltić.
The court, as stated, accepted the testimony of the accused that the women and children were transported by tractors to the Urije settlement in order to keep them away from danger and protected.
The Fund for Humanitarian Law states in a statement that they consider it unacceptable that the Court treats the forced relocation of women and children, who were previously separated from men and taken from their homes, as a rescue operation, instead of considering such treatment in the context of the attack on Alići and Ekići and the forced displacement of the Bosniak population.
Earlier, the Appellate Court in Belgrade confirmed part of the verdict acquitting Željko Novaković of the crimes committed in June 1992 in the area of Bosanski Novi, while part of the first-instance decision for Milenko Karlica was canceled and the case was sent back for a retrial. The verdict in relation to Karlica was abolished in the part of the forced displacement of civilians.
According to the indictment, on June 22, 1992, Novaković and Karlica participated with about 20 other armed persons in expelling civilians from their houses in the hamlets of Ekići and Alići, began beating the men who were moving in the column, and separated them from the women, who were sent towards Urije with tractors.
The indictment also states that an armed group, which gathered in Maslovare, previously killed a civilian. The men were then taken to the Muslim cemetery, where, as stated in the indictment, Karlica ordered them to dig a grave, and then ordered Novaković and the others to shoot, killing around 24 civilians.
It is further stated that in the second half of 1996, the bodies of the majority of those killed were dug up, taken away and thrown at the confluence of the Japra and Sana rivers. The bodies that remained at the scene of the murder were found and exhumed in 1998, while parts of the remains were found at the mouth of the Japra, as well as in the settlement of Jablanica, and the search for the others is underway.
In January 2022, Serbia took over the case of Novaković and Karlica, in June 2019, Novaković was indicted for participating in the murders, torture and persecution of the Bosniak civilian population from Ekić and Alić, and against Karlica in early 2016. The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina then announced that, as the “leader of an organized group”, he ordered the separation of the women and children who were in the columns together with the men, who were then loaded into tractors and driven towards the Urije settlement.
Two years ago, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced ten defendants to a total of 162 years in prison for crimes committed in Alići and Ekići, Fena writes.
