Bosnian Serb Policemen Plead Not Guilty to Persecution

Former policemen Nedjelko Kuljic and Zeljko Ilic, accused of wartime crimes including the torture and murder of non-Serbs in Bileca in 1992, insisted they were innocent.

Kuljic and Ilic, both former police officers at the Bileca Centre for Public Safety in south-east Bosnia, pleaded not guilty on Monday to the persecution of non-Serbs, and participation in the physical and mental abuse, torture and killings of Bosniaks and Croats from the beginning of June until the end of December 1992.

According to the indictment, Kuljic and Ilic participated in the arrest of 150 to 160 Bosniak and Croat civilians who were illegally detained and imprisoned in inhumane conditions in the Public Safety Station and a student dormitory in Bileca and in Bileca during wide-ranging and systematic attack.

The prisoners were beaten and tortured in an extremely humiliating way, indictment alleges.

Kuljic and Ilic have not been remanded in custody but some restrictions on their movements have been imposed by the court.