Trial against Zdravko Pijunović for criminal offence of war crime against civilians stated in Article 120, paragraph 1 of the OKZRH.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Osijek District Court

Case No: K-38/93

War Crimes Council (judges' panel): judge Ružica Šamota, Council President; judge Vojislav Alagić, Council member; lay judges Marija Vukelić, Mirko Tutnjević and Ljiljana Beleš, Council members

Criminal offence: war crime against civilians stated in Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the OKZ RH

Indictment: issued by the Osijek Municipality State's Attorney, No: KT-28/93, dated on 23 March 1993, factual aspects of the criminal act amended during the trial/main hearing  

Accused person/Defendant: Zdravko Pijunović, tried in absence

Defence Counsel: Ilija Brkić, lawyer from Osijek

Victim: one female person raped (name undisclosed to the public)

VERDICT (SUMMARY)

According to the Osijek District Court’s verdict No: K-38/93-24 dated on 24 September 1993, the accused Zdravko Pijunović was found guilty as charged that, during the occupation of Baranja, on the night of 19-20 December 1991 in Bilje, around 22:30hours, Pijunović, in his capacity as a member of Serb paramilitary formations, had entered the house of a married couple of Hungarian ethnicity while carrying a rifle in his hand, with a goal of subjecting non-Serb civilian population to humiliation and intimidation and inflicting serious mental pain upon them, as well as with a goal of evicting the civilians from their homes, he had ordered the female person to go with him while threatening to kill her husband if he only stepped out of the house, and had taken the female person to a house in the vicinity, and threatening to kill her and her husband, as well as their parents, since they all had been put on the execution list, he had raped her, and after that he had taken her in tears around 01:30 hours to her house where he had continued humiliating her husband and threatening to kill him. After the injured party had reported the case of rape, she was receiving anonymous letters full of threats warning the injured party and her husband not to wait for the case to be brought to court but to leave Baranja, otherwise they would be killed.  

The accused Pijunović was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

We neither have the information on the appeals lodged by the parties nor the information on the verdict passed by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Croatia.