The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) issued an order to issue a warrant for Zeljko Rudak, accused of crimes committed in the “Trnopolje” camp in Prijedor, after he failed to appear at the plea hearing earlier, it was confirmed.
The order to issue a warrant was issued on the proposal of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, and in addition, a decision ordering Rudak’s detention was also issued.
“The court did not receive any new information about the whereabouts of the accused”, they stated in the reply from the Court of BiH.
The accused Rudak was supposed to appear at the plea hearing at the end of May, but then the judge for the preliminary hearing Saban Maksumic said that they had received a notice from the Prijedor Police Station that the accused was not at the address stated in the indictment.
“They only found his wife there, who told them that he went to Serbia in January,” is part of the police report, which states that even Rudak’s wife does not know the address where he lives.
Namely, the defendant’s defense attorney Zeljko Gnjatovic then said that he had not communicated with his client since January 2023.
Prosecutor Izet Odobasic stated that they received information from the BiH Border Police that the accused Rudak left BiH on January 22nd, 2023 and that he is in Serbia, which is why they previously requested the issuance of a warrant and detention.
Rudak, together with Slavko Puhalic, Dragan Skrbic, Rajko Damjanovic and Dragomir Saponja, are accused of having committed crimes in the camps “Omarska”, “Keraterm” and ” Trnopolje”. Puhalic is charged with the indictment as an investigator and deputy warden of the “Trnopolje” camp and a superior person on all guard shifts, and the others in the status of guards in the camps – that they participated in the execution of a joint criminal enterprise, carried out persecution on a discriminatory basis, on the basis of national, political and religious affiliation.
They were charged with the rape of at least ten women and girls, including minors, one of whom died as a result of the abuse, and two rape victims were forced to become pregnant and give birth.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, at least 21 prisoners died as a result of abuse, and five were forcibly taken in an unknown direction, and since then there were no traces of them and their bodies have not been found to this day.
The indictment charges that Rudak, in his capacity as a guard in “Trnopolje” during June 1992, tortured and inflicted injuries and physical and psychological suffering on one of the detainees with an unknown soldier.
Together with them, Dragoja Cavic was accused, but the Court of BiH suspended the proceedings against him “due to the withdrawal of the indictment by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiHin relation to the suspect Cavic“.
Previously, Puhalic, Skrbic and Damjanovic denied guilt for the crimes committed in the Prijedor camps.
In addition to Rudak, the accused Saponja is also on the run, and the Court of BiH ordered custody and ordered a warrant to be issued for him, Detektor reports.
E.Dz.
