The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) rejected the appeal of the Defense and confirmed the first-instance verdict by which Predrag Bastah was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the crimes in Mracni Dol, or to a single sentence of 35 years in prison for the crimes committed in Vlasenica.
In the first-instance proceedings, Bastah was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murders of 34 people committed in 1992 in the Mracni Dol locality near Vlasenica, his defense attorney Milan Romanic confirmed.
The indictment charged him with the murders of 37 people, but the Trial Chamber rejected the part of the accusation, which referred to three people included in the earlier final judgment, which sentenced him to 22 years in prison for the crimes in Vlasenica.
The council, pronouncing the verdict for Mracni Dol, combined the sentences into a single sentence – 35 years in prison for Bastah.
Earlier, the defense asked the Appellate Panel to annul the verdict sentencing him to 20 years in prison for a crime against humanity committed in 1992 in Vlasenica, while the Prosecution proposed that the first-instance verdict be confirmed.
”We are going with an appeal to the Constitutional Court. That is the next step,” announced his defense attorney Milan Romanic, who also stated earlier during the proceedings that his client’s rights were violated.
There is no possibility of an appeal against the final judgment.