The Panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina delivered, on 31 May 2022, a second instance judgment in the case of Ranko Babić et al., grating the appeals filed by defense attorneys for the accused Bratislav Bilbija and Đuro Adamović, revoking the Judgment of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, No. S1 1 K 031299 19 Kri of 16 November 2021 in its convicting part and ordering a trial before a panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The same judgment dismissed as ill-founded the appeal filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Judgment of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, No. S1 1 K 031299 19 Kri of 16 November 2021 upheld in its acquitting part.     

The Trial Judgment of 16 November 2021 found the accused Bratislav Bilbija and Đuro Adamović guilty of commission of the criminal offense of War Crimes against Civilian Population under Article 142(1) of the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia (CC SFRYJ), and the accused Đuro Adamović also as read with Article 22 of the same Code. The Court sentenced the accused Bratislav Bilbija to imprisonment for a term of two (2) years, and the accused Đuro Adamovićo to imprisonment for a term of three (3) years.

The accused Bratislav Bilbija and Đuro Adamović are found guilty because, during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the territory of Prijedor municipality, on an unspecified day in August 1992, within an armed attack of the military, police and paramilitary units of the Army of Republika Srpska, as members of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), they accorded inhumane treatment to the non-Serb civilian population in the hamlet of Bukvik, village of Ljeskare, the Prijedor municipality, in contravention of Article 3 of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War of 12 August 1949.

The accused Ranko Babić, Bratislav Bilbija and Đuro Adamović are acquitted of the charged that the committed the following: the accused Ranko Babić, the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity under Article 172(1) h) in connection with sub-paragraphs a), f), i) and k) of the CC BiH, all as read with Article 180(1) and Article 29 of the CC BiH, and the accused Bratislav Bilbija and Đuro Adamović, the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity under Article 172(1) h) in connection with sub-paragraphs a), f) and i) CC BiH, all as read with Article 180(1) and Article 29 of the CC BiH.