Convicted war criminal Rade Garic was secretly transferred to Serbia on Monday to serve his sentence, N1 found out.

Until Monday, Garic was serving his sentence in Vojkovici prison according to a decision of the BiH Ministry of Justice.

Several sources confirmed for N1 that neither the Prosecutor's Office nor the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina were part of the decision-making process regarding his transfer to Serbia. Garlic’s name is mentioned in several other active investigations by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office.

The BiH Justice Ministry said it had no obligation to inform the court of the transfer and that the former Justive Minister,Josip Grubesa, signed off on it.

N1 also did not receive an explanation for why Garic was transferred without respecting legal procedures.

Garlic, a former member of the Army of Republika Srpska, was sentenced to 17 years in prison last year for crimes against humanity against Bosniaks in the area of Vlasenica in 1992, and against the people of Srebrenica in 1995.

According to the verdict, he was found guilty of persecuting the Bosniak civilian population of the Municipality of Vlasenica “by murder, imprisonment or other serious deprivation of liberty, enforced disappearance of persons and other inhumane acts of a similar nature committed with the intention of causing great suffering or serious physical or mental injury”.

He received Serbian citizenship during the trial, which started in 2018.