prijava
SARAJEVO, November 10 (FENA) - The verdict convicting Sakib Mahmuljin, former commander of the Bosnian Army’s Third Corps, of failing to stop Islamic volunteer fighters torturing and killing Serb prisoners was overturned on appeal, his lawyer said.
Sakib Mahmuljin’s defense lawyer Fahrudin Ibrišimović told BIRN on Wednesday that the appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court has quashed the first-instance verdict sentencing the former commander of the Bosnian Army’s Third Corps to ten years in prison.
Ibrišimović said he was still waiting for the text of the appeals chamber’s decision, so its reasons for overturning the verdict are not yet known.
Mahmuljin was found guilty in January of failing to prevent murders and inhumane acts by members of the El Mujahideen unit of volunteer Islamic fighters in the Vozuća and Zavidovići areas during the war.
According to the charges, members of the El Mujahideen unit, a detachment of Islamic fighters from Middle Eastern countries, killed at least 55 captured Bosnian Serb Army soldiers in the period from July to September 1995, and cut some of their heads off.
The El Mujahideen unit operated as part of the Bosnian Army’s Third Corps, but Mahmuljin argued during the trial that he was not responsible for the crimes committed by the foreign fighters.
(FENA) S. R.
