Bosnia’s state court has ordered Radomir Susnjar, a Bosnian national whom France extradited to Bosnia on Sunday so he can face war crimes charges, into pre-trial detention for 30 days.

The war crimes Susnjar is charged with took place in the eastern town of Visegrad in June 1992.  

Prosecutors allege that Susnjar, along with other members of the Army of Republika Srpska and Bosnian Serb paramilitary units, had illegally captured, robbed and imprisoned Bosniak civilians from the village of Koritnik in a house in Visegrad's Pionirska Street.  

The house was then set ablaze, while the perpetrators shot at it to prevent those captured inside from escaping.

Bosnia's Prosecutor's Office issued an indictment against Susnjar the last year, charging him with breaching the Geneva Convention on Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

“There were 57 civillians captured in the house, among them women, children and older people, who were set ablaze while alive. A few of them managed to escape and save themselves, and the remains of those who were killed have not been found to date,” the indictment states.

According to court documents at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), some 3,000 Bosniaks were killed during the mass murders in Visegrad and its surrounding area, including hundreds of women and children.

Judge Stanisa Gluhajic made the decision to place Susnjar in detention because there is a possibility of him escaping to neighbouring Serbia, as he has dual citizenship, as well as because he might destroy, forge or hide evidence, influence witnesses, and because of the possible tensions his release could cause among the local population.