Trial against Branko Vujanović, charged with a war crime against civilians referred to in Article 120, paragraph 1 of the OKZRH.

INDICTMENT

The Vukovar ŽDO's indictment no. DO-K-7/98 of 19 April 1999 is available in Croatian here.

With the memo issued on 13 May 2003, the indictment was amended.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Vukovar County Court

Case file no.: K-8/03

Judges' panel: Ante Zeljko, presiding; judge Stjepan Margić, member; lay judges Vlado Krpan, Vedrana Dujić and Jozo Geljić, members

Indictment: no. DO-K-7/98 of 19 April 1999 issued by the Vukovar County State Attorney's Office, amended by a memo dated 13 May 2003.

Criminal offence: war crime against civilians referred to in Article 120, paragraph 1, in conjunction with Article 20 of the OKZRH

Defendant: Branko Vujanović, unavailable

Defence Counsel: Šimo Filipović, court appointed defence counsel

Victim - killed: Josip Patron

VERDICT (SUMMARY)

The Vukovar County Court rendered on 4 June and pronounced on 5 June 2003 the verdict in which Branko Vujanović was found guilty that in Vukovar about 11 hours on 19 November 1991, together with other members of paramilitary formations, under the circumstances when the same persons were killing defendants and citizens just because of their ethnicity, with the purpose to have civilian Josip Patron, who was walking in the colon of detained civilians, also killed, he [the defendant] pointed at the mentioned civilian to the unidentified member of paramilitary formations next to him and said "this one, this one, he is from Nijemci", and this unidentified member separated the Josip Patron out of the colon and killed him after that.

The defendant was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The Vukovar County Court's verdict is available in Croatian here.

The State Attorney's Office lodged an appeal against the verdict because the first-instance court did not sentence the defendant for all the charges which the State Attorney's Office raised against him. However, the State Attorney's Office dropped charges and following to that the VSRH dismissed the appeal by the State Attorney's Office. The VSRH decision is available in Croatian here.