After the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered the detention of ten accused for crimes in Bosanski Novi during the first-instance verdict, Rajko Karlica, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison, was not found at his address and actions are currently being taken to arrest him.
The Court of BiH replied to Detektor that the defendants who were found guilty, with the exception of Rajko Karlica, had already been arrested, because he was not at the address, but in another city.
“The Court is currently taking actions with the aim of depriving him of his liberty,” the Court said.
As they stated, the four defendants who attended the announcement of the verdict were immediately taken to detention units.
By the first-instance verdict, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Ranko Balaban, Ratko Goronja, Nikola Reljić, Mirko Odžić, Ranko and Dragan Baltić to 18 years each, Rajko Karlica, Milenko Brčin and Milenko Babić to 15 years each, while Miroslav Kapetanović was sentenced to nine years in prison for crimes committed in the area of Bosanski Novi.
Apart from Karlica, the defendants Balaban, Goronja, Reljić, Brčin and Kapetanović did not attend the sentencing.
The council established that on June 22, 1992, after the funeral of a murdered Serbian soldier, as an armed group consisting of more than 20 soldiers, they went to the villages of Alić and Ekić. There, as it was concluded, they forced the civilian Bosniak population to leave their houses, threatening to kill them if they did not do so; shooting and yelling at them, they led them towards the Orthodox cemetery, where they beat the men with stocks, fists and feet, while the women and children watched.
“Then they separated about 90 men and took them to the Muslim cemetery, where they forced them to dig a grave and stand around it, after which the armed soldiers were ordered to stand in a firing squad and start shooting,” stated the chairman of the Council, Lejla Konjić Dragović, presenting the first-instance verdict.
On that occasion, 24 men were killed, and their bodies were found in different locations, considering that the grave was dug up and the bodies were transferred into the river. The remains of all those killed have not yet been found.
After the pronouncement of the verdict, which was allowed to be appealed, the chairperson Konjić Dragović announced that the previous banning measures against the defendants would be revoked, and the Council sentenced the defendants to custody, which can last for a maximum of nine months, Fena reports.
