Crime in the village of Pecki – Bjelovac hamlet
The Supreme Court of the RoC established that the request for protection of legality filed by the State Attorney’s Office was well-founded and that the legally valid verdict of the Sisak District Court No. K-24/92 of 25 May 1993 and the verdict of the Supreme Court of the RoC No. I Kž 833/93 of 30 November 1993 violated the law to the detriment of the convicts Nikola Radišević, Jovo Zubanović, Simo Plavljenić and Dušan Paunović, thus it quashed the abovementioned verdicts and reversed the case to the first instance court for a re-trial.
The main hearing at the Sisak County Court commenced on 15 September 2009.
After the State Attorney’s Office dropped charges, on 7 January 2010 the Court suspended criminal proceedings against Radišević, Zubanović, Plavljenić and Paunović.
INDICTMENT
The indictment by the Sisak County State’s Attorney’s Office No. KT-178/92, modified on 15 September 2009, charged the defendants that on 16 August 1991 in the Bjelovac hamlet near the village of Pecki, together with several unidentified members of the Serb paramilitary units, armed with rifles and axes, aware of the fact that Stjepan Horvat, Đuro Horvat, Mato Horvat and Ivan Bugarin go to feed their cattle to the Bjelovac hamlet every morning, attacked them simply because they were of Croatian ethnicity by firing several rifle shots at them and hitting them with the ax on the heads and bodies,
thus, having violated the rules of the international law during an armed conflict, they attacked civilians which resulted in death, whereby they committed the criminal act of a war crime against civilians referred to in Article 120, paragraph 1 of the Basic Criminal Law of the RoC (hereinafter: the OKZRH).
You can see the modified indictment of 15 September 2009 here. (in Croatian)
PREVIOUS COURSE OF THE PROCEDURE
The Sisak District Public Prosecutor’s Office issued the indictment No. KT-178/92 of 30 November 1992 in which the defendants were charged with the commission of the criminal act referred to in Article 142, paragraph 1 of the transferred Criminal Code of Yugoslavia (war crime against civilians referred to in Article 120, paragraph 1 of the OKZRH).
The convicts were tried in absentia.
On 25 May 1993, the Sisak District Court published a verdict in which the convicts were found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison (each). You can see the verdict here. (in Croatian)
The verdict of the Supreme Court No. I Kž 833/1993 of 30 November 1993 denied the convicts’ appeal lodged by their court-appointed defence counsel and upheld the verdict of the first instance court.
However, in January 2009, the State’s Attorney’s Office of the RoC issued a request for the protection of legality against the aforementioned verdicts by the Sisak District Court and the Supreme Court of the RoC.
The Supreme Court of the RoC, at the sessions of the Panel held on 25 February and 11 March, ruled that the request for protection of legality was well-founded and that the abovementioned verdicts by the Sisak District Court and the Supreme Court of the RoC violated the law to the detriment of the convicts, thus it quashed the abovementioned verdicts and reversed the case to the first instance court for a re-trial. You can see the verdict of the Supreme Court here. (in Croatian)
According to the opinion from the Supreme Court of the RoC, the law was violated because the sentencing verdict was based on the testimony which cannot be used as evidence in the criminal proceedings. Namely, the witness Marijan Gregurinčić, who was the only one who named the convicts as perpetrators, based his knowledge on the information provided to him as a police officer by citizens when, acting according to a criminal report in another criminal proceedings, he was looking for information from citizens.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Sisak County Court
Case file No.: K-15/09
War Crime Council: Judge Melita Avedić, Council President; Judge Predrag Jovanić, Council member and Judge Ljubica Balder, Council member
Indictment: issued by the Sisak District Public Prosecutor’s Office No.: KT-178/92 of 30 November 1992, modified at the main hearing on 15 September 2009
Criminal act: war crime against civilians referred to in Article 120, paragraph 1 of the OKZRH
Defendants: Nikola Radišević, Jovo Zubanović, Simo Plavljenić and Dušan Paunović – currently at large, they are tried in absentia
Prosecution: Jadranka Huskić, Sisak County Deputy State’s Attorney
Defence counsels:
Domagoj Rupčić, defence counsel of the 1st defendant Nikola Radišević,
Zorko Kostanjšek, defence counsel of the 2nd defendant Jovo Zubanović,
Željko Andrijević, defence counsel of the 3rd defendant Simo Plavljanić,
Danko Kovač, defence counsel of the 4th defendant Dušan Paunović.
Victims – killed:
Stjepan Horvat, Đuro Horvat, Mato Horvat and Ivan Bugarin
REPORTS FROM THE HEARING
The main hearing commenced on 15 September 2009.
After the State Attorney’s Office dropped charges, on 7 January 2010 the Court suspended criminal proceedings against Radišević, Zubanović, Plavljenić and Paunović.
