Banja Luka special forces and accomplice sentenced to 40 years in prison

(Patria) - Three former special forces members and their accomplice Oleg Banda were sentenced before the Banja Luka District Court to a total of 40 years in prison for a robbery on the Banja Luka – Gradiška highway, during which around 617,000 convertible marks (KM) were stolen.

The verdict was handed down for the third time, after two previous ones were overturned.

Former members of the Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska (MUP RS) Vladan Malić, Goran Paraš and Aleksandar Popović were sentenced to ten and a half years each, and Banda to eight and a half years in prison.

In the first proceeding, Malić, Popović and Paraš were sentenced to 11 years each, while Banda received two years less, but the Supreme Court of RS overturned that verdict. In the retrial, the four defendants received sentences half a year lighter each, but in September 2018, that verdict was also overturned.

The robbery was carried out in September 2015 on the Banja Luka – Gradiška highway, targeting a convoy with money from "UniCredit bank" that "Sector Security" was supposed to transport to the state border with Croatia. The defendants were arrested and detained four months later.

A particularly aggravating circumstance for the defendants, according to this verdict, is that at the time of the armed robbery they were members of the Special Police Unit of the MUP RS.

The verdict obliges them to return 540,000 KM, which is part of the stolen money whose whereabouts have not been determined.

The Banja Luka District Court today extended the detention of Vladimir Malić and his accomplices, who have been in custody since January 2016.