Štrpci Crimes Verdict Confirmed

(Patria) - The Appellate Panel of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the first-instance verdict under which seven former members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) were sentenced to a total of 91 years in prison for participation on February 27, 1993, in the abduction of 20 civilians from a train in Štrpci, who were killed in the area of Višegrad, while Luka Dragičević was acquitted of the charge of issuing an order for the civilians' removal, it was confirmed for Detektor.

Miodrag Stojanović, Dragičević's defense attorney, Petko Pavlović, Obrad Poluga's defense attorney, and Slaviša Prodanović, Oliver Krsmanović's defense attorney, confirmed for Detektor that the Court of BiH fully confirmed the first-instance verdict.

Obrad and Novak Poluga, Petko Inđić, Radojica Ristić, Dragan Šekarić, Oliver Krsmanović, and Miodrag Mitrašinović were sentenced to 13 years in prison each under the first-instance verdict for participating as co-perpetrators in the murders of 20 civilians taken from the train that operated on the Belgrade – Bar line, while Dragičević was acquitted of the charge that, as commander of the Second Podrinje Brigade from Višegrad, he issued an order for the civilians' removal.

The verdict states that the accused, along with other members of an armed formation, arrived by truck at the station in Štrpci, where some of them entered the train and, after identification, removed 20 passengers, including the train conductor, whom they transported by truck to the school in Prelovo, where the command of the First Battalion of the Second Podrinje Brigade was located.

The civilians were ordered to enter the school hall and remove their clothes, after which they were beaten, their hands were tied with wire, and they were transported by truck, bleeding, to the ruined house of Rasim Polje in Mušići, where they were killed by firearms, and their bodies were subsequently thrown into the Drina River. Later, the remains of only four victims were found and identified in the Perućac Lake.

During the first-instance verdict, it was stated that Milan Lukić participated in the liquidation of 18 captured civilians, and that two were killed while attempting to escape, one of whom was killed by the convicted Nebojša Ranisavljević, and the other by an unknown soldier, Detektor reports.

Lukić was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes committed in Višegrad, and the Court of BiH filed an indictment against him for crimes in Štrpci in early 2020, which he refused to accept while serving his sentence in Estonia, while Ranisavljević was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Montenegro.