Three indicted for war crimes in Sarajevo area

An indictment has been filed against 3 individuals for war crimes committed in the Sarajevo area. The accused are charged with the war crime of rape and sexual abuse of a minor victim in 1993, the BiH Prosecutor's Office announced, writes Patria.

The prosecutor from the Special Department for War Crimes has filed an indictment against:

- Elvir Muminović, aka "Popaj", born in 1975 in Sarajevo

- Samir Kešmer, born in 1974 in Višegrad

- Mirsad Menzilović, aka "Čepo", born in 1975 in Sarajevo

The accused are charged that, during the war and armed conflict in BiH, as members of the Army of BiH, they acted contrary to the Geneva Conventions on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

The indictment states that the aforementioned individuals, in May 1993, in the part of Sarajevo under the control of the Army of BiH, after the accused Muminović approached a girl of Serbian nationality on the street and forcibly detained her in a residential building, committed multiple torture, abuse, and beating of the minor victim, upon whom all three committed rape and sexual abuse, inflicting severe physical and psychological injuries on the victim and lasting consequences of abuse that she still feels today.

The accused are charged that, by violating the rules of international humanitarian law during the war and armed conflict, by using force and threats to life and body, they forced another person into sexual relations, rape, thereby committing the criminal offense of war crimes against the civilian population under Article 173 of the Criminal Code of BiH. The indictment has been forwarded to the Court of BiH.