The Belgrade Higher Court's decision against Bosnian national Husein Mujanovic for alleged war crimes is scandalous and proves the Court only tries army members of the then Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina contrary to several International Court of Justice decisions, Bosniak Presidency member and Chairman of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Sefik Dzaferovic said Monday.
“The fact that the Serbian judiciary is conducting criminal proceedings for alleged war crimes against members of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina deserves every kind of condemnation. The judiciary of the Republic of Serbia, which had committed aggression against Bosnia as was established by several International Court of Justice verdicts, prosecutes those who defended Bosnia, in a situation where the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is competent for such cases,” Dzaferovic noted in a statement for Fena news agency.
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Serbia's Higher Court sentenced Mujanovic to 10 years in prison, in a first instance verdict, for alleged wae crimes against Serb civilians detained in a camp near Sarajevo.
The Presidency Chairman added that this is a “complete abuse of international law by Serbia” because the state that carried out the aggression is trying to prosecute those who defended Bosnia from that aggression – before its judiciary.
“This practice, that has existed for many years, doesn't exist anywhere else in the world,” he noted and recalled the issuances of international arrest warrants against Bosnian army members who resided in third countries.
“All these countries have made decisions to conduct proceedings before the Bosnian Court,” he said.
According to him, this situation is contrary to international law and the institutions in charge of implementing the law will have to deal with this issue.
Dzaferovic called on Serbia to take this situation seriously and to extradite them to BiH in order for BiH to conduct, if necessary, procedures because otherwise, it will further complicate mutual relations.
