INJUSTICE Former camp inmate receives new "penalty": In addition to 7,625 KM, Behadil must also pay 2,500 KM in fees!

Former camp inmate, now returnee to his native Milići, Behadil Dizdarević, instead of compensation for the 5.5 months spent in the Batković camp, where he survived torture and various ordeals, was ordered to pay a "penalty" to the defendant Republika Srpska, Patria reports.

First, in January, a decision arrived at his home address, with no right of appeal, ordering him to pay 5,000 KM in court fees and 2,625 KM in procedural costs. On February 6, the postman knocked on his door again.

Behadil has now received a decision from the Tax Administration of Republika Srpska increasing the fee costs by an additional 2,500 KM! So now Behadil must pay Republika Srpska 10,125 KM. He says he does not have that money. He is unemployed, as is his wife, and they are raising three children. They live on his father's disability pension, who also received a decision that he must pay 1,500 KM, because he, too, as a former camp inmate, sued Republika Srpska.

Behadil and his father are among several thousand former camp inmates who sued Republika Srpska about 15 years ago. Initially, the lawyer was from Croatia, who turned out not to have a license to practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after which, Behadil tells us, another lawyer, to whom they all gave power of attorney, took over their lawsuits.

However, instead of compensation for everything they survived in the camps, they are now receiving penalties.

The Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina a year ago upheld an appeal by the Republika Srpska Attorney's Office against the rulings of regular courts that had obligated Republika Srpska to pay compensation to individuals for non-material damage caused by arrests and detention in camps.

Thus, thousands of lawsuits have been dismissed, and victims and camp inmates are receiving decisions based on which they must pay Republika Srpska, each of them several thousand marks.