Former Bosnian Serb Army military policeman Nikola Koprivica is accused of involvement in the killings of 44 Bosniaks in the village of Novoseoci near Sokolac during the war in September 1992.
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Nikola Koprivica (left) after he was extradited from Canada to Bosnia. Photo: Bosnian state prosecution.
The Bosnian state prosecution on Friday charged Nikola Koprivica, alias Nidza, with committing a crime against humanity, accusing him of participating in an attack on the Bosniak-inhabited village of Novoseoci in the Sokolac municipality on September 21 and 22, 1992 that left 44 people dead.
He took part in the attack as a Bosnian Serb Army military policeman, alongside other members of the military police force, the indictment says.
“After the attack, women and children were separated from the men, and the captured men were transported by military trucks to a landfill at Ivan Polje, a few kilometres from Novoseoci, where they were brought to the edge of the landfill, and shot and killed with gunfire,” the prosecution’s statement said.
Koprivica is accuse of personally participating in the killings by firing at the victims with an automatic weapon.
Of the 44 people who were killed, the youngest was 14 and the oldest was 77. The bodies of 43 victims have been exhumed, and the remains of one other person remain missing.
After the crime was committed, the local mosque was destroyed, and the rubble was thrown onto the bodies of the victims at the Ivan Polje landfill, the prosecution alleges.
The indictment has been forwarded to the Bosnian state court for confirmation.
Earlier this month, Koprivica was extradited to Bosnia from Canada, where he had been living for several years.
A court case is already ongoing for the killings in Novoseoci. Among those on trial are Dragomir Obradovic, former commander of the police’s Public Security Station in Sokolac, Momcilo Pajic, former commander of the Military Police Company with the Second Romanija Motorised Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, and his deputy Aleksa Gordic.
Also on trial are Miladin Gasevic, former deputy commander of the Reconnaissance Company of the Second Romanija Motorised Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, as well as Momir and Branislav Kezunovic, Zeljko Gasevic and Jadranko Suka, all former members of the company.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
