At the session held on 3 April 2008, the Appellate Panel of Section I for War Crimes of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) issued a decision on appeals from the Trial Panel’s Verdict. The decision granted the appeals filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the defence counsel of the accused Krešo Lučić, revoked the Trial Panel’s verdict dated 19 September 2007 and ordered a retrial before the Appellate Panel. The decision states that the appeals were granted on the basis of essential violations of criminal procedure provisions.

The Trial Panel found Krešo Lučić guilty of Crimes against Humanity and sentenced him to 6 years of imprisonment.  The Trial Panel, inter alia, found Lučić guilty of unlawfully arresting six Bosniak civilians together with other military police officers during June and July 1993, as the commander of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) Military Police in Kreševo.  The Trial Panel also found that on 20 June 1993, together with two of his subordinates, Lučić unlawfully arrested a Bosniak whom he escorted to a detention camp located in the Ivo Lola Ribar Elementary School in Kreševo.  The detainee was then physically abused by the Accused and another member of the Military Police.  Krešo Lučić also tortured detained Bosniaks who had been brought from the Šunje camp to the Kreševo Military Police Headquarters during June and July 1993.

Krešo Lučić was acquitted of the charges that on 18 July 1993 he interrogated and physically abused a detained Bosniak in the Kreševo Military Police Headquarters, and that he ordered his subordinates to physically abuse this detainee. 

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