The war crimes Panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina handed down, on 13 July 2018, a judgment finding the accused Nihad Bojadžić guilty of the commission of the criminal offense of War Crimes against the Civilian Population in violation of Article 142(1) of the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (CC SFRY), which was adopted on the basis of the Law on the Application of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Criminal Code of the SFRY, and of the criminal offense of War Crimes against Prisoners of War in violation of Article 144 of the CC SFRY.

The accused was found guilty because, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the armed conflict between the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Croat Defense Council, in the capacity of a Deputy Commander of the „Zulfikar“ Special Purposes Detachment within the Main Staff of the Supreme Command of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he acted in violation of the rules of Article 3(1)(a) and (c) of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in War Time of 12 August 1949 and Article 3(1)(a) and (c) of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, that is, he was found guilty of the acts described in Sections 1-10 of the judgment pronouncement, in the manner that he accorded inhuman treatment to prisoners of war in violation of the rules of international law, inflicted on them severe suffering, and injuries to body and health, and also during the armed conflict in violation of the rules of international law, he committed rape of civilians.

By applying Articles 33, 38 and 41 of the CC SFRY, the Appellate Division Panel imposed on the accused Nihad Bojadžić a prison sentence for a term of 6 (six) years for the criminal offense of War Crimes against the Civilian Population, and a prison sentence for a term of 5 (five) years for the criminal offense of War Crimes against Prisoners of War, and thus, by applying Article 48(2)(3) of the CC SFRY imposed and the accused a compound sentence of imprisonment for a term of 10 (ten) years.

At the same time, pursuant to Article 49(1) of the CC SFRY, the same Judgment has accepted as fixed the prison sentence of 15 (fifteen) years which was imposed on the accused under the earlier final Judgment of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. S1 1 K 003369 10 KrI of 1 September 2015, wherefore the accused received a compound prison sentence for a term of 15 (fifteen) years, which shall be credited towards the time the accused spent serving the prison sentence received under the previous Judgment of the Court Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the time he spent in custody in both the case of this Court No. S1 1 K 003369 10 KrI and the present criminal proceedings.

Pursuant to Article 188(1) of the CPC BiH, in connection with Article 186(2) of the same Code, the accused shall reimburse the costs of both the criminal proceedings and a scheduled amount to be determined by the Court in a separate decision.