The Court in Paris reached a decision to extradite Radomir Šušnjar, accused of committing crimes in Višegrad in 1992, to the BiH judiciary. Bakira Hasečić, president of the Association Woman-Victim of War, was also present in the courtroom.
Hasečić was accompanied by Florence Hartmann, the former spokeswoman of The Hague Tribunal, who said that this is a step towards justice.
“This procedure has been going on for two years and I am happy that the French judge pronounced one such decision, unlike the French judge who read the acquitting verdict of Vojislav Šešelj. I believe this is also a piece of justice and an important thing, Hartmann said.
Hartmann said that France should not block this process because Šušnjar demands the BiH judiciary and being prosecuted in BiH.
Hasečić said that she also entered a verbal conflict with Šušnjar’s supporters in the courtroom.
“Although the process took longer, because he was arrested in 2014, he is finally going to be extradited. He has the right to appeal. However, I hope that this decision will remain on force and that BiH judiciary will prosecute him. This is one of extraordinary days,” Hasečić said.
Radomir Šušnjar is under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and accused of participating in a crime known as “the living pyre” in spring of 1992 in Višegrad. The living pyre took place when in mid-June 1992 around 60 civilians of Bosniak nationality, including women and children, were forcibly brought and closed in one house in Pionirska Street and then burnt alive. Only several victims survived the incineration.
On June 25th, France has extradited to Bosnia a former ethnic Serb soldier accused of taking part in the burning alive of more than 50 Muslim civilians during the country’s 1990s war.
Radomir Susnjar, 62, known also as ‘Lalco,’ was identified as living in France by an investigation by Bosnian prosecutors.
He was arrested in France in 2014 and released under court supervision before being arrested again earlier this month in Seine-Saint-Denis, a region north of Paris.
A Bosnian court charged him in 2017 with taking part in the incident in which members of Bosnian Serb military and paramilitary forces held Muslim civilians inside a house in Visegrad in eastern Bosnia, the statement said.
“The house was then set on fire, while Susnjar and others were shooting at it to prevent civilians from fleeing.”
Only a few people escaped with their lives. The victims included women, children and elderly people.
