Belgrade's Higher Court issued a first instance verdict against Nikola Vido Lujic, a member of Serbia's special forces unit called Red Berets, sentencing him to an eight-year sentence for raping a woman in Northern-Bosnian town of Brcko in 1992, BIRN reported on Thursday.

According to the indictment, Lujic and two other uniformed soldiers entered a house in Brcko, took all the valuables from the women from the house, and then Lujic took her in where he raped her several times.

During the attack, the victim asked Lujic to kill her to whicht he responded that “he was not tasked of doing that,” the indictment said.

During the trial, Lujic claimed he was not part of any armed unit and that he did not know the victim, but other witnesses, including two Red Berets, testified that he was indeed a member of the Serbian special forces unit.

The trial saw the testimony of the victim's husband.

The indictment was first filed by the Brcko District Prosecution in 2018, but since Lujic was a Serbian national, the Doboj District Court transferred the case to the Belgrade Higher Court.

Judge Dejan Terzic said during sentencing that there were no mitigating circumstances concerning Lujic because he had prior sentences for similar crimes.

The trial began in 2018.