FIVE MEN SUSPECTED OF WAR CRIMES AGAINST CIVILIANS DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY

By order of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH five persons suspected of war crimes committed in 1993 in the area of Potok - Mostar municipality were deprived of liberty. Officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency handled the arrests in cooperation with the Herzegovina - Neretva Canton MoI and pursuant to the order of the Prosecutor of the Special Department for War Crimes within the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH.

By order of the Prosecutor of the Regional Team 5 of the Special Department for War Crimes within the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH the suspects with the following initials were deprived of liberty: E. Ć. (1956), H. Č. (1942), I.D. (1955), S.K. (1964) and M.K. (1965).

The  aforementioned persons are under investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and are suspected of having committed grave violations of the provisions of the International Humanitarian Law during the war in BiH, in their respective capacities of a warden and soldiers of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by withholding basic rights to ethnic Croats on discriminatory grounds by way of acting or failing to act, ordering, instigating, aiding and abetting thus significantly contributing to illegal arrests and incarcerations, inhumane treatment, abuse, torture, inflictions of injuries to bodily integrity and health, and forced labor all with the intent to establish and maintain, through their actions, a system of ill-treatment of  ethnic Croat prisoners of war and civilians in private facilities "Omorikine" and "Skenderine" and in the camp in elementary school in Potoci.

More than 107 persons were kept in captivity including women, children and the elderly, and a number of prisoners have died.

They are being investigated on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense under Article 173 of the CC BiH - War Crimes against Civilians in conjunction with Article 180 of the CC BiH - Individual and Command Responsibility and Article 29 of the CC – Co-perpetration.

The suspects will be handed over, within the legal deadline, to the Assigned Prosecutor who will question them and then decide on a motion for remand in custody or order of prohibiting measures.