On 5 June 2019 the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the indictment charging the accused Željko Novaković with the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity under Article 172(1)h) as read with Subparagraphs a), d), f) and k) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, all as read with Article 180(1) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The indictment alleges that between early May 1992 and at least September 1992, in the framework of a widespread and systematic attack carried out by the army, police, territorial defense, armed groups of people and paramilitary formations of the Serb Forces of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, subsequently the Army of Republika Srpska, against the non-Serb civilian population in the Bosanski Novi municipality, which began in early May 1992 by an armed attack on civilian settlements of Donji Agići and Gornji Agići, Crna Rijeka, Suhača, Hozići, Blagaj, Alići and Ekići and other settlements in the valley of Japra, Urija, and other settlements inhabited by the Muslim population in the municipality of Bosanski Novi, during which civilian structures were demolished, the non-Serb civilians killed and expelled from their homes that were set on fire and pillaged, men taken and detained at the Mlakve stadium and the Fire Department Building in Bosanski Novi, while more than 4,000 civilians were forced into a cargo train and transferred towards Doboj, with the persecution continuing by the expulsion of at least 13,000 non-Serb civilians from the territory of Bosanski Novi, within which, as a member of the Serb armed forces, knowing of the attack and that their own actions constituted part of the attack, the accused Željko Novaković took part in the persecution of non-Serb civilians of the Bosanski Novi municipality on ethnic and religious grounds, by way of murder, forcible transfer of population, torture and other types of inhumane treatment of similar nature committed with the intent to inflict great suffering.
