Crime against Bosniaks: Stričević sentenced to 10 years

The Cantonal Court in Bihać sentenced Slavko Stričević to ten years in prison for crimes committed in 1992 in the area of Bosanski Petrovac, reports the Patria News Agency.

He was found guilty of inhumanely treating prisoners of war and killing two of them, as a member of the reserve police force of the Republika Srpska.

The panel determined that captured members of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina from Sanski Most – Mustafa Cikota, Emsud Smailović Emsuda, and Satko Burnić – were brought to the Post Office in Bravsko on June 28, 1992, where Obrad Ožegović shot and killed Burnić.

- The accused ordered the remaining two prisoners to load the body of the murdered man onto a tractor trailer, hitting them in the process, according to the verdict, which adds that Stričević and Milutin Babić transported the prisoners to the Ravnica pit, also known as Derviš's pit.

The panel determined that the accused ordered the two prisoners to remove the body of the murdered Burnić from the trailer and, while they were holding the body, fired two bursts from an automatic rifle at them.

Milutin Babić fired a shot to the head of Smailović, who was lying on the ground and showing signs of life.

Stričević will have the time spent in custody from May 23 to September 14, 2012, credited to his sentence.

He was sentenced to ten years for the murder of prisoners in July 2013, but that verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, after which the proceedings were reopened. An appeal against the verdict delivered today is permitted.

Milutin Babić is also being tried for this crime in separate proceedings before the Cantonal Court in Bihać, but the trial was suspended in December last year due to the accused's health condition, writes BIRN.