The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina handed down and announced, on 21 April 2022, the first instance judgment in the case of Dragan Vikić and others acquitting the accused Dragan Vikić, Nermin Uzunović, Jusuf Pušina and Mladen Čović of the charges brought against them under the Indictment of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina of 27 December 2016, since it was not proved that the accused indeed committed the criminal offenses charged against them, pursuant to Article 284 c) of the CPC BiH.

The indictment, inter alia, alleges that during the war and an armed conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina in April 1992, between members of the Armed Forces of the Army of BiH and units of the Territorial Defense and the JNA reserve forces placed under the unique command of the Army of the Republic of Srpska, stationed at the Lukavica barracks, which formed part of the 1^st Sarajevo Mechanized Brigade VP 7512 of the Army of the Republic of Srpska, the accused Dragan Vikić, in the capacity of the Commander of the Police Detachment-Special Unit of the MUP RBiH and the Commander of the Reserve Force Unit of the Special Unit of the MUP RBiH, the accused Jusuf Pušina, in the capacity of Assistant Minister for Uniformed Police of the MUP RBiH, and the accused Nermin Uzunović and Mladen Čovčić, in the capacity of members of the Reserve Force Unit of the Special Unit, along with members of the Special Unit and members of the Reserve Force Unit known to them, acted in contravention of Article 3(1) a) of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of 12 August 1949, in as much as:

• Nermin Uzunović and Mladen Čovčić deprived lives of other persons (murder) and thereby committed the criminal offense of War Crimes against Prisoners of War under Article 175(1) a) of the CC BiH, in connection with Article 180(1) of the CC BiH, as read with Article 29 of the CC BiH;
• Dragan Vikić, as a superior person, knew or had reason to know that his subordinates were about to commit the criminal offense of murder of prisoners of war, and that he knew that his subordinates committed the said offense, but he failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the commission of the criminal offense and punish the perpetrators of the crime, whereby he would have committed the criminal offense of War Crimes against Prisoners of War under Article 175(1) a) of the CC BiH, as read with Article 180(2) of the CC BiH;
• Jusuf Pušina, as a superior person, knew or had reason to know that his subordinates committed the criminal offense, but he failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to punish the perpetrators of the crime, whereby he would have committed the criminal offense of War Crimes against Prisoners of War under Article 175(1) a) of the CC BiH, as read with Article 180(2) of the CC BiH.