Indictment Confirmed Against 11 Former HVO Members for Crimes in Mostar

MOSTAR, (Patria) - The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed an indictment against 11 former members of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO) for crimes committed in 1993 and 1994 in the Mostar area, Birn reports.

Nedžad Ćorić, Jure Kordić, Dražen Lovrić, Dario Sušac, Nedžad Tinjak, Nuhan Šikalo, Dario Mihalj, Stanko Škobić, Tomislav Ančić, Marinko Šunjić and Slavko Golemac are charged with crimes against humanity.

The accused are alleged to have participated from July 1993 to March 1994 in a widespread and systematic attack during which more than 70 Bosniak civilians from the Mostar area were unlawfully arrested and taken to the “Vojno” camp, where they were held in inhumane conditions.

- By their actions, they committed or otherwise assisted in the commission of various forms of physical, psychological and sexual violence, and contributed to the reinforcement of conditions in the camp that were brutal and degrading - the indictment states.

The Prosecutor's Office stated that all the accused were members of the HVO, the First Battalion of the Second Brigade and the “Punishment Battalion”.

- The goal was the detention, abuse and persecution of the Bosniak civilian population from the territory of the planned Croatian state of Herceg-Bosna - the indictment reads.

According to the indictment, hundreds of Bosniak men from the “Heliodrom” camp were taken to forced labour, and civilians were unlawfully imprisoned in a camp in the village of Vojno, where they were held in degrading and inhumane conditions in a garage and basement of a house, subjected to physical and psychological abuse.

Knowing the nature of such a system and with the intention of advancing it, the accused, according to the State Prosecutor's Office, knowingly participated in a joint criminal enterprise together with Marko Radić, Dragan Šunjić, Damir Brekalo, Mirko Vračević and others.

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Radić to 21 years, Šunjić to 16, Brekalo to 20, and Vračević to 12 years in prison for crimes committed in the Mostar area.