ZAGREB, January 14, 2018 – The Belgrade Appeals Court has upheld prison sentences ranging from five to 20 years for eight persons accused of war crimes at Ovčara, Croatia in 1991, while acquitting four due to lack of evidence or contradictory witness testimonies, the Court said on its website on Saturday.
The Court’s war crimes department delivered the judgment on 24 November 2017, upholding the trial verdict of 20 years’ imprisonment each for Miroljub Vujovic, Stanko Vujanovic, Predrag Milojevic and Goran Mugosa.
Nada Kalaba’s trial sentence was raised to 11 years’ imprisonment, while Ivan Atanasijevic’s was reduced to 15. The Court reduced the 20-year sentences for Miroslav Djankovic and Sasa Radak to five years each for crimes against POWs.
Jovica Peric, Milan Vojnovic, Milan Lancuzanin and Predrag Dragovic were acquitted of war crimes against POWs due to lack of evidence, while proceedings against Djordje Sosic were stopped because he died during the appeals proceedings.
The trial verdict delivered by the Belgrade District Court’s panel for war crimes on 12 March 2009 sentenced Vujovic, Vujanovic, Atanasijevic, Milojevic, Sosic, Djankovic and Radak to 20 years’ imprisonment each for war crimes against POWs, Vojnovic was sentenced to 15 years, Peric to 13, Kalaba to nine, Lancuzanin to six, and Mugosa and Dragovic to five years’ imprisonment each.
The Appeals Court considered appeals to the trial verdict for the second time. On 14 September 2010, it had upheld most of the trial sentences.
Serbian prosecutors accused 20 persons of participating in the murder of 193 POWs at Ovčara farm near Vukovar in eastern Croatia on 21 November 1991, of whom 15 were sentenced to a total of 207 years’ imprisonment and five were acquitted prior to the appeals proceedings.
