Indictment Filed Against Two Individuals for War Crimes in Kotor-Varoš

The Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes has filed an indictment against Ranko Ševarika, born on 29.04.1963 in Bokani, Skender Vakuf, a citizen of BiH, and Radomir Ševarika, nicknamed „Čatro“ and „Čagi“, born on 02.02.1958 in Bokani, Skender Vakuf, a citizen of BiH, reports the Patria news agency.

The accused are charged with acting contrary to the provisions of the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war during the war and armed conflict in BiH, as members of the reserve police force (Ranko Ševarika) and the VRS (Radomir Ševarika).

They are accused of coming, at the beginning of October 1992, in the area of the Skender Vakuf municipality, together with other VRS members, to the basement premises of the Post Office, knowing that captured members of the HVO Kotor-Varoš were held there, and from those premises they led out two prisoners.

After that, with the intention of killing them, they took the prisoners to the Borak location, where VRS positions were situated, and beat and abused them in front of other VRS members, after which soldiers, by firing firearms, killed one prisoner who had untied himself and started running towards the forest, and the accused Ranko Ševarika, by firing a burst from an automatic weapon at close range, killed the other prisoner who was lying on the ground.

The accused are charged with participating, during the war and armed conflict, in violation of the rules of international law, in the killing of prisoners of war, thereby committing the criminal offense of War Crimes against Prisoners of War.

The indictment will be forwarded for confirmation to the Court of BiH.