Former HVO member Brnjić sentenced to six years in prison

The State Court found Marijan Brnjić guilty of crimes against civilians in the Odžak area, sentencing him to six years in prison, BIRN reported, as carried by the Bosnian news agency Patria.

In the same verdict, Martin Barukčić and Pavo and Ilija Glavaš were acquitted due to lack of evidence for crimes committed against civilians of Serbian ethnicity in Odžak.

Brnjić was convicted for raping Vera Bijelić, a woman of Serbian ethnicity, on 3 July 1992 in the village of Posavska Mahala.

Jasmina Kosović, presiding judge of the Trial Chamber, stated that the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina proved that Brnjić, as a member of the 102nd Brigade of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), raped Vera Bijelić.

- The Chamber did not accept Brnjić's alibi because the Defence failed to prove that he was in Germany at the time of the crime - Kosović emphasised.

She noted that Bijelić gave a “credible and consistent statement”.

In determining the sentence, the Chamber considered as mitigating circumstances that Brnjić is a family man, while his recklessness and persistence in committing the crime were taken as aggravating circumstances.

With this verdict, Brnjić, Barukčić, and the brothers Pavo and Ilija Glavaš were acquitted of charges that they raped Milica Đekić in June 1992.

The Chamber stated that there is no doubt that Đekić is a victim of rape, but, as Kosović noted, witness Đekić changed her statement, leading to an acquittal on this count.

Kosović also said that the Chamber accepted the alibi of the accused Pavo Glavaš regarding his stay in Switzerland at the time of the rape of witness Đekić.

All four accused were also acquitted of charges of raping Zorka Lešić, whose statement the Chamber assessed as “unreliable”, while Brnjić and Barukčić were acquitted of charges of raping Ljubica Lešić because she questioned her earlier statements during testimony.

Barukčić was acquitted of raping Joka Goranović, among other reasons, because she first reported the rape in June last year, when the accused were arrested.

Brnjić will have the time spent in custody since April 2014 credited towards his prison sentence, and he was also ordered to bear the costs of the criminal proceedings.

The trial of these four former HVO members began in October last year.

An appeal against this verdict is possible, NAP reports.