Foreign judges, prosecutors to stay in Bosnia
Herzegovina-Bosnia’s top international official says he has extended the mandate of foreign judges and prosecutors at Bosnia’s State court despite vigorous resistance from Bosnian Serb.
The court deals with war crimes, organized crime and terrorism.
Austrian diplomat Valentin Inzko said Monday foreign judges and prosecutors, whose mandate was to expire at the end of December, will continue handling war crimes cases for three more years. Those in charge of corruption, organized crime and terrorism will become advisers to local staff.
Bosnian Serbs insist all foreigners at the state court must leave.
One of the foreign prosecutors is investigating allegations that Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik is engaged in widespread fraud.
Serb charged for killing Muslims in Bosnia war
Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor has indicted a former Bosnian Serb fighter in the wartime killing of three Muslims civilians in northern Bosnia.
The prosecutor’s office says that 46-year-old Dusko Kesar and three others threw a bomb at the victims’ house and later beat and stabbed them to death. It says the attack took place in the town of Prijedor in 1994.
Monday’s statement says that Kesar’s alleged accomplices were convicted and sentenced by a Bosnian Serb court in 2005, but that he is being prosecuted here because he has Serbian citizenship.
Bosnia’s war erupted in 1992 when the Serbs rebelled against the Muslim-led government’s decision to split from former Yugoslavia. Thousands died before a U.S.-brokered peace deal was signed in 1995.
December 14, 2009
Associated Press
