Bosnia’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Bisera Turkovic, strongly criticised Serbia’s decision to sentence a former member of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina for abusing civilians and prisoners of war in 1992, instead of transferring the case to BiH.

The Belgrade High Court sentenced Osman Osmanovic, a wartime official at the Rasadnik war camp in Gornji Rahic near Brcko, to five years in prison for abusing civilians and prisoners of war in the 1992 detention facility, Detektor reported.

The court found that Osmanovic's actions constituted a war crime against civilians. It also concluded that he worked for the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the time of the crime.

The sentence can be appealed.

Osmanovic, who is a Bosnian citizen, has been in custody since November 2019, when he was arrested on the border between Serbia and BiH.

BiH demanded his extradition, but Serbia refused to grant the request.

Osmanovic is one of the three BiH citizens who were arrested between 2018 and 2021 upon entering Serbia on suspicion of committing war crimes.

Turkovic said on Friday that “the first-instance verdict against Osman Osmanovic is shameful,” arguing that she had asked Serbia to hand over the case to BiH’s judicial institutions in accordance with the protocol.

“A new heavy blow to the normalisation of relations in the region at a sensitive time. Injustice towards one man is injustice towards all of us “, she wrote on Twitter.

Sramna prvostepena presuda protiv Osmana Osmanovića. 🇧🇦 je sa pravom tražila od 🇷🇸 da se predmet ustupi bh. pravosuđu u skladu sa protokolom. Novi težak udarac normalizaciji odnosa u regiji u osjetljivom trenutku. Nepravda prema jednom čovjeku nepravda je prema svima nama.

— Bisera Turković (@BiseraTurkovic) March 18, 2022