Assets Released Before Trial: Citizens of BiH to Pay Compensation to Victims Instead of Rapists

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has imposed fines on two rapists, in addition to prison sentences, which is a precedent in BiH judiciary, writes the BiH news agency Patria.

However, the financial compensation to victims of rape during the aggression against BiH will not be paid by the rapists, but by the taxpayers of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Meliha Merdžić from the Association "Woman - Victim of War" reveals for the news agency Patria that those accused of rape, before their case reaches a judicial conclusion, transfer all their assets to family or friends, so the fines imposed by the court are paid by the entities or the state, i.e., the citizens of BiH.

- Criminals massively transfer their assets to other people. This problem can be solved if there is political will. The state must introduce mechanisms that will enable the confiscation of assets from anyone who is punished by the court in this way, regardless of whether the criminal transferred the assets to other owners just before the indictment was filed or shortly thereafter – says Merdžić.

The Court of BiH on Monday sentenced Slavko Savić, a member of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), to eight years in prison for raping a female person in Vogošća in 1993, and the verdict ordered Savić to pay the witness 30,000 KM for non-material damages.

This is the second case before the Court of BiH in which the accused, in addition to a prison sentence, must also pay a fine to the victim.

A few days earlier, the Court of BiH, in the case of Bosiljko Marković and others, for the first time in its history, ruled that perpetrators of the criminal offense of war crimes against the civilian population, rape, must pay compensation to the victim. In this case, it was 26,500 KM.

Merdžić explains that financial compensation, no matter how high, cannot compensate for the pain that raped women endured during the conflict, but that it should in any case be seen as an additional pressure on future generations to ensure that something similar never happens again.

Merdžić further adds that the warning to future generations would be stronger if the financial compensation were paid by the perpetrators themselves and not by the citizens in their stead, writes Patria.