The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina delivered, and on 13 December 2023 publicly pronounced Trial Judgment in the case of Ranko Draškić and others, acquitting the accused Ranko Draškić and Savo Manojlović of the charges because it was not proved that, by the acts described in the operative part of the judgment, they had indeed committed the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity under Article 172(1) h), in conjunction with Paragraph 1 a), d), and e) of the same Article, as read with Article 180(1) and Article 29 of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
An appeal from this judgment may be filed with the panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH within 15 days after the receipt of a written judgment.
The indictment of the BiH Prosecutor’s Office charges Ranko Draškić and Savo Manojlović that, between the second half of May and late June 1992, during a state of war and armed conflict between the Territorial Defense of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, subsequently the Army of Republika Srpska, on the one side, and the Territorial Defense of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina on the other, in violation of the rules of international law and the provisions of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, in the framework of a widespread and systematic attack launched by the Territorial Defense of the Serb municipality of Ilijaš on the non-Serb civilian population of Ilijaš municipality, knowing of the attack and that their acts form a part thereof, as members of the Intervention Platoon of the Territorial Defense of the Serb municipality of Ilijaš, subsequently the 1st Ilijaš Light Brigade of the Army of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the aim of inflicting great suffering and outrages upon the bodily integrity of civilian persons, they persecuted the non-Serb civilian population in the Ilijaš municipality on national, ethnic and religious grounds by way of killing and serious deprivation of liberty.
