BiH ordered to pay compensation to Serbian general falsely accused of “war crimes”
The Constitutional Court of BiH has ruled that Sarajevo must pay compensation to retired Republika Srpska Police General Goran Saric for the mental suffering he suffered and the damage caused to his reputation, dignity and freedom.
Saric's trial was one of the few against representatives of the Republika Srpska command, when charges of “war crimes” could not be brought against a Serbian officer.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, the Constitutional Court of BiH, in its decision adopted two days ago, rejected the appeal of the Prosecutor General's Office of BiH and confirmed the decision of the BiH Court of December 2019.
The court's decision stated that the cause of mental pain and damage to the reputation and honor of General Saric was the unjustified house arrest and restrictive measures applied to him during two war crimes trials. The former commander of the Republika Srpska Special Police Brigade was acquitted of war crimes charges in two trials against him, after which he filed a lawsuit against BiH in the BiH Court demanding compensation.
Saric himself is satisfied that he managed to achieve justice.
“I don’t understand why they filed an appeal at all, especially since the amount of compensation was not too large. But now it’s all over, although the verdicts by which I was acquitted of war crimes were much more important to me,” the officer said.
It should be noted that such a decision is not at all typical for BiH, where Serbian officers and soldiers are traditionally tried on the basis of false testimony, and Bosniak and Croatian criminals are acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
During the process, it became clear that the police units commanded by Saric arrived in Srebrenica from near Sarajevo after its liberation by the Republika Srpska Army and were mainly engaged in patrolling.
According to the officer, the Bosnian Serb command evacuated the civilian population to the territory controlled by the Bosnia in a very clear and organized manner, and did not plan any massacres of prisoners of war. However, he does not deny the executions of prisoners of war, which, according to him, occurred after the attack and murder of a Serbian guard with the aim of escaping by one of the Islamists in Kravica. Therefore, there is no need to talk about any thousands of killed “men and youths,” much less about “genocide” in Srebrenica.
BiH ordered to pay compensation to Serbian general falsely accused of "war crimes"