Bužim residents Zijad Nanić and Esad Kudelić finally acquitted of war crime charges

(Patria) - The Appeals Chamber of the State Court issued a verdict acquitting Zijad Nanić and Esad Kudelić of charges of war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war in Bužim in 1994 and 1995.

Following a retrial, the Appeals Chamber concluded that the Prosecution had not proven the command responsibility of the accused. Nanić was acquitted of the charge that, as assistant commander for security of the 505th Bužim Brigade of the Fifth Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he failed to prevent or take measures to punish subordinate members of the Military Police.

“The first condition of command responsibility, the superior-subordinate relationship, has not been met,” stated the presiding judge of the Appeals Chamber, Amela Huskić.

She said that Nanić was not superior to the members of the Military Police, that he did not issue orders to them nor command the unit, but that the brigade commander was responsible for that.

“The thesis put forward by the Prosecution that everyone is obliged to file a report is not sufficient to conclude responsibility,” Huskić said.

As the Appeals Chamber established, Kudelić, as platoon commander of the Military Police of the 505th Brigade, was formally superior to its members, but responsibility cannot be reduced solely to performing a function.

“It is undisputed that he is first in the chain of command of the Military Police; however, it is necessary to determine whether there was effective control and continuous knowledge of events,” the presiding judge explained.

She stated that the Defense's evidence cast doubt on whether Kudelić was aware of the actions committed by his subordinates during his alleged failure to act. She referred to evidence regarding Kudelić's appointment to duty on December 3, 1994, his absence due to sick leave, and his injury in the period up to March 1995.

“This clearly indicates a completely interrupted flow in the command position,” Huskić said, adding that evidence of his injury during participation on the battlefield separates Kudelić from the events in the detention facility.

According to her, witness statements that Kudelić occasionally stopped fights near the detention facility are not sufficient to constitute sufficiently alarming information about the scope of the acts.

The judge recalled that last year the Appeals Chamber overturned the first-instance verdict regarding Nanić and Kudelić due to improper application of command responsibility; they had been sentenced to five years in prison each. She noted that the two accused were not charged with having committed the acts as direct perpetrators nor with having contributed to their commission through inaction.

The trial in this case began in March 2016, and six former military police officers have previously been finally convicted. The case covers crimes against civilians and prisoners of war, members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and the National Defense of the Autonomous Province of Western Bosnia (NOAPZB) in an improvised prison of the 505th Bužim Brigade at the Radoč Hotel.

No appeal is allowed against this verdict.