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The Bosnian state court. Photo: BIRN.

Sasa Perkovic is seeking 13,000 Bosnian marks (about 6,650 euros) in compensation for mental distress because of the length of time for which his movements were restricted during the war crimes proceedings against him, a court hearing in Sarajevo heard on Tuesday.

Safija Krestalica from the state prosecutor’s office said Perkovic’s claim should be rejected because the restrictions imposed on the defendant were “necessary for conducting the proceedings correctly and lawfully”.

His lawyer Zorana Carkic insisted however that her client suffered psychologically because of the ban on leaving his home during what she called “the unjustified criminal proceedings”.

Perkovic, a former member of the Bosnian Serb Army’s Rogatica Brigade, was acquitted alongside seven other defendants of shooting and burning 20 Bosniaks in the village of Karacici, near Rogatica, in September 1992.

Another one of the acquitted defendants, Ilija Vukasinovic, was awarded 7,000 Bosnian marks (about 3,570 euros) in September 2018 in compensation for the time he spent under house arrest during the proceedings.

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