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Acquitted defendant Amir Salihovic with Izet Arifovic and Suad Smajlovic. Photo: BIRN.

The Bosnian state court on Friday found Izet Arifovic guilty of killing civilians captured in the village of Zalazje, near Srebrenica, on July 12, 1992, who had previously turned in their weapons, and killing another civilian in the village of Ratkovici, near Bratunac, on June 21, 1992.

The court found Suad Smajlovic guilty of mutilating the bodies of the dead people by firing his gun at them, but he was acquitted of participating in the murders.

A third defendant, Amir Salihovic, was acquitted of unlawfully arresting nine Serbs after a military operation in Zalazje on July 12, 1992 and taking them to an unknown place, after which they have never been seen again.

“The chamber did not accepted the alibis offered by Arifovic, who claimed to have been severely wounded at the time and had difficulties walking, and Smajlovic, who said he was not present in Srebrenica,” said presiding judge Stanisa Gluhajic.

Gluhajic said meanwhile that the prosecution failed to present evidence linking Salihovic to the disappearance of Serbs from Zalazje.

The verdict can be appealed.

The arrests of the three defendants in 2016 were welcomed by Serb victims’ groups, who often accuse the Bosnian judicial authorities of not targeting perpetrators of crimes against Serbs.

But the arrests angered Bosniak veterans and war victims’ associations, who argued that the prosecution should prioritise cases against Serb perpetrators of the 1995 genocide, when more than 7,000 men and boys from Srebrenica were killed.

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Srebrenica Arrests Divide Serbs and Bosniaks