The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina will start the hearing in the case of Atif Dudakovic, former commander of the Fifth Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH), and 16 former members of that corps.
Former Bosnian Army Fifth Corps commander Atif Dudaković and 16 subordinates are accused of wartime crimes including over 300 murders and the destruction of Serb Orthodox churches.
The state court in Sarajevo on Wednesday confirmed the indictment of wartime Bosnian Army general Atif Dudaković and 16 of his subordinates on charges that have angered Bosniak politicians and war veterans.
Ten days ago, the Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes has issued an Indictment against Atif Dudaković and another 16 members and commanders of the 5th Corps of the RBiH Army charged with crimes against humanity, committed in the municipalities of Bosanski Petrovac, Ključ, Bosanska Krupa, Sanski Most, and with war crimes against civilians, committed in the municipalities of Bihać and Cazin.
The accused are charged with the killing of more than 300 persons of Serb ethnicity, majority of whom were civilians, mostly elderly persons, and soldiers who had surrendered or had been captured and thus were incapacitated for combat.
The bodies of some of the victims were found after the war and exhumed from several individual and mass graves, whereas some of the thus killed are still unaccounted for.
One part of the Indictment against Atif Dudaković refers to war crimes committed against Bosniak victims, members and supporters of the National Defence of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia, during the conflict in the Cazin Krajina, in the municipalities of Bihać and Cazin.
The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina will prove the allegations in the Indictment by summonsing 447 witnesses and six expert witnesses and by tendering more than 1100 pieces of evidentiary material.
The accused are charged with the criminal offence of Crimes against Humanity, as referred to in Article 172 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Atif Dudaković is also charged with the criminal offence of War Crimes against Civilians, as referred to in Article 173 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
