prijava
SARAJEVO, May 25 (FENA) - Eleven former Croat Defense Council (HVO) fighters went on trial for the torture, beating and sexual abuse of Bosniak civilian detainees in Mostar in 1992 and 1993.
The trial of the 11 former Croat Defense Council fighters opened at the Bosnian State Court in Sarajevo on Friday, with the defendants accused of detaining, persecuting and committing grave abuses against Bosniak civilians in Mostar, BIRN reports.
“The defendants detained more than 100 Muslim civilians in the Heliodrom detention camp. After that, they took them out in order to do forced labor. They were then taken to the Vojno detention camp,” said prosecutor Remzija Smailagić.
Nedžad Ćorić, Jure Kordić, Dražen Lovrić, Dario Sušac, Nedžad Tinjak, Nuhan Šikalo, Dario Mihalj, Stanko Škobić, Tomislav Ančić, Marinko Šunjić and Slavko Golomec are all charged with crimes against humanity.
“Many of the civilians were brutally tortured and beaten, they suffered severe bodily and mental injuries and a large number of them were even killed. Many old people, children and women, who were sexually abused, were also held in those detention camps at some stage,” the prosecutor said.
The defendants were members of the Second Brigade’s First Battalion and the Convicts’ Battalion of the Croat Defense Council, HVO.
Smailagić said the crimes were committed with the aim of establishing the Croat Community of Herzeg-Bosna, a wartime unrecognized Bosnian Croat statelet with its headquarters in Mostar.
The first witnesses are due to testify on June 12.
(FENA) S. R.
