Autonomaši Sentenced to 11 Years and Four Months for Crimes Against Captured ARBiH Soldiers in Velika Kladuša

(Patria) - The Cantonal Court in Bihać sentenced Sulejman Sefić, Mehmed Brkić, Senad Sarajlija, Jasmin Ćoragić, and Alija Mujagić to a total of 11 years and four months in prison for crimes against captured members of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the area of Velika Kladuša during 1994.

By the first-instance verdict delivered by the presiding judge of the Trial Chamber, Jasmina Lipovača, Sefić was sentenced to two years and eight months, Brkić and Sarajlija to one year and four months each, and Ćoragić and Mujagić to three years in prison each.

In explaining the verdict, Lipovača stated that the accused, as members of the First Brigade of the People's Defense of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (NOAPZB), acted inhumanely towards captured members of the Fifth Corps of the Army of BiH, in that Sefić, along with Admil Mulalić, who has since passed away, physically abused Rasim Hadžić, a member of the Fifth Corps, in the Crvarevac settlement of Velika Kladuša in late July 1994. When the victim fell to the ground, he continued to beat him with the butt of his rifle.

Beat Already Wounded Muhić with Fists and Feet

On the same day, in Čaglica, Mujagić, armed with a Papovka rifle, cursed at Fifth Corps member Husein Muhić after he surrendered, grabbed him by the hair, and fired a shot into his right thigh, after which he dragged him with other members to his house, a hundred meters away.

Sarajlija – armed with an automatic rifle – beat the already wounded Husein Muhić with his fists and feet all over his body, and then, with other members of NOAPZB, drove him in a Golf to the house of Miroslav Rokvić – the command of one of the companies of the First Brigade of NOAPZB. During the ride, he continued to physically abuse the victim.
In the same location, Ćoragić physically abused Bekir Brkić and Šefik Kovačević after three members of the Fifth Corps were captured.

Court Considered Mitigating Circumstances

Sefić and Brkić were convicted because they put five prisoners, with their hands cuffed, into a refrigerated truck in Vrnograč, drove them to the premises of the Grupeks company, and continued with physical abuse.

- They acted inhumanely towards the captured members, physically and psychologically abusing them, and committed a war crime against prisoners of war – said Lipovača, referring the victims to civil proceedings with property claims.

As she stated, the Court, taking into account mitigating circumstances, reduced the sentence below the legal minimum of five years.

Mujagić and Ćoragić were exempted from paying court costs, which will be covered by Sefić, Brkić, and Sarajlija in an amount exceeding two thousand marks, upon the verdict becoming final.

There is a possibility of appealing this verdict to the Supreme Court of the Federation, writes Detektor.