War criminal, commander of the notorious "Gabela" camp Boško Previšić Boko has died

(Patria) - Boško Previšić, known as Boko, former commander of the notorious "Gabela" camp, died on February 10th at the age of 76, reports Politicki.ba.

According to former inmates, he issued all orders and mistreated prisoners. The indictment by the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton Prosecutor's Office accused him of war crimes against Bosniak civilians and prisoners of war, specifically between May 8th and December 22nd, 1993.

On October 2nd, 1993, Previšić killed Mustafa Obradović, one of the youngest members of the "Bregava" unit of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by shooting him with a pistol.

Afterwards, while Obradović's body lay on the ground, Previšić took an automatic rifle from one of the guards and fired another burst into him.

Mustafa Obradović was killed simply because Previšić found a piece of bread and a pack of cigarettes on him during a search.

Believing himself to be the master of life and death, Previšić had, shortly before, strictly forbidden hungry inmates from bringing food into the camp, especially bread.

According to the Mostar indictment, about twenty days before this horrific crime, Previšić also approached six detained civilians and, without any provocation, shot at them with a pistol, hitting Asim Merdžo in the left thigh, to whom he subsequently "denied medical assistance".

Finally, he was also accused of holding over a thousand prisoners for several months in unsanitary premises – hangars known as "kec", "dvica", "trica", and "četvorka".

"They suck in their stomachs just to show that Croats are evil people," Previšić would say in 1993 to HRT, "offended by the negative propaganda" about the harsh conditions in the "Gabela" camp.

Twelve years later, Previšić did not appear in court, although he was duly notified of the start of the trial.

"Bring in the suspect," ordered the President of the Trial Chamber, Judge Zoran Krtalić.

Court police officers went to the village of Grabovine near Čapljina, but, of course, did not find the accused there. They found only his wife at home, who said that Boko had "left home" the day before and that she "didn't know where he was".

Like the former member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and leader of HDZ BiH, Ante Jelavić, a month earlier, Previšić fled to Croatia. It took him only about ten minutes to drive to nearby Metković.

Warrants were issued, but, of course, without any result.

On April 24th, 2018, the County Court in Osijek issued a verdict K-Rz-1/2018-10, by which the commander of the "Gabela" camp was convicted of committing criminal acts of war crimes under Article 120, paragraph 1, and Article 122 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia to a unified prison sentence of eight years. The verdict is final.

In addition, he did not prevent many from interrogating and mistreating dozens of prisoners. Due to severe beatings, some of the inmates died. These include Enver Šabanović, Hivdija Dizdar, Bajro Hasić, Nursret Elezović, Mirsad Žuja, Ibri Razić, and Mustafa Beša.

Previšić thus ended up in prison, as did his deputy Nikola Andrun, who was finally sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2014.