Balkans

Dusan Gavran, head of the country’s centre for removing mines, BHMAC, has been questioned over claims that he misused his public position and was engaged in corruption.

A former detainee said he was repeatedly beaten in captivity by Nedzad Hodzic, one of two Bosniak ex-servicemen accused of wartime crimes on Mount Igman.

Former Bosnian Army serviceman Zehrudin Scuk was sentenced to six years in prison for killing a female civilian in the village of Krkaca near Jablanica in 1993.

The Bosnian State Prosecution, in its closing arguments, called for former Bosnian Army fighter Edin Dzeko to receive a long sentence for crimes committed against Bosnian Croats in Konjic and Jabhlanica in 1993.

Former fighter Milun Kornjaca, accused of the imprisonment, torture and murder of Bosniaks in the Cajnice area in 1992, told the court that he had nothing to do with any of the crimes.

Prosecutors in Bihac in northwest Bosnia said that Milutin Babic, from Kljuc, suspected of war crimes in Bosanski Petrovac, had been extradited from Serbia.

Former Croatian Defence Council fighter Nikola Maric is accused of involvement in the detentions, persecution and killings of Bosniaks in the Prozor area in 1992 and 1993.

Four ex-members of the Croatian Defence Council, whose arrests sparked a protest in Kiseljak, are accused of the torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners of war in 1993.

After the EU Foreign Affairs Council discussed Bosnia on Monday, it said separatist rhetoric must go and politicians need to focus more on economic development and jobs.

The international court turned down former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s request to quash the genocide and war crime charges against him midway through his trial.