ABDIĆ'S CRIMINAL Zlatko Hušidić finally convicted for war crimes

SARAJevo, (Patria) - The Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a final verdict on December 19 last year, rejecting the appeal of the defense of the commander of the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade of the People's Defense of APZB Hušidić Zlatko and confirming the verdict sentencing him to one year in prison for war crimes against prisoners of war.  

It was proven that Hušidić Zlatko, during the war in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the armed conflict between members of the Army of the V Corps of the Army of BiH and members of the army of the so-called "People's Defense of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia", as commander of the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade of the People's Defense of APZB, treated prisoners of war belonging to the V Corps of the Army of BiH contrary to the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12.08.1949.  On 18.03.1995, after a larger number of members of the V Corps Army of RBiH were captured, brought and imprisoned in the garage of a house owned by D. A. in the settlement of Trnovi, municipality of Velika Kladuša, which house is near the advanced command post (IKM) of the 2nd Brigade of the NO APZB, he arrived in front of D. A.'s house  where the captured members of the V Corps Army of BiH, taken out of the garage and lined up, were located, and after getting out of the car, he immediately approached the lined-up captured members of the V Corps Army of BiH and began to physically beat the prisoner Ć. Đ. with his left hand as his right was injured, and then took a rifle from an APZB soldier who was there into his healthy left hand, and alternately hit Ć. Đ. and S. F. with the rifle butt, and then with his legs all over their bodies, and then approached the prisoner P. E.  also a member of the V Corps Army of BiH, and hit him twice with the rifle in the head and back, thereby causing him injuries, as a result of which the said prisoners of war suffered severe physical and mental pain, announced the Prosecutor's Office of USC.

The Prosecutor's Office reminds that after the indictment was filed on 29.06.2015 and the main hearing was held before the first-instance Municipal Court in Bihać, the same court issued a verdict on 15.02.2016, sentencing Hušidić Zlatko to two years in prison. By a decision of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the appeal of Hušidić Zlatko's defense was partially accepted, and the case was returned to the first-instance court for a retrial. After the retrial, the Municipal Court in Bihać issued a verdict on 05.07.2018, acquitting Hušidić Zlatka of the charges.

The Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Una-Sana Canton appealed against this verdict, and after the main hearing was held before the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the same court issued a verdict on 20.06.2019, declaring Hušidić Zlatko guilty of the crime he was charged with, and sentenced him to one year in prison.

Given that the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after the main hearing, overturned the first-instance verdict by which Hušidić Zlatko was acquitted of the charges, an appeal against the said verdict was permitted to the third-instance panel of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This panel ultimately rejected the appeal of Hušidić Zlatko's defense and confirmed the verdict sentencing him to prison.

The parties cannot appeal against this verdict.