The UN’s Yugoslav war crimes court will pass judgment today on Rasim Delic, one of the most senior Muslim military men to be charged for abuses committed during the 1992 to 1995 war in Bosnia.
The ex-commander of the Bosnian army has pleaded not guilty before The Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to murder and cruel treatment of Bosnian Croats and Serbs at the hands of his troops.
The prosecution seeks a 15-year jail term for the 59-year-old ex-general over the murders of at least 74 people and the mistreatment of others between June 1993 and September 1995 — some of them civilians and some prisoners of war.
The crimes were allegedly committed by Muslim extremist fighters called the mujahidin or “holy warriors” who formed a unit of the Bosnian army that was comprised in part of foreign volunteers.
Delic is one of comparatively few Muslims to be indicted by the tribunal, which is frequently accused of partiality by Serbia.
He was tried on the basis of “superior criminal responsibility” for failing to prevent or punish his men’s actions.
“Rasim Delic knew or had reason to know that soldiers of the El Mujahed Detachment under his command and effective control were about to or had committed these acts and failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures to prevent and punish these crimes,” states a case fact sheet.
In one incident in June 1993, Muslim fighters under Delic’s command allegedly opened indiscriminate fire on a group of captured civilians and soldiers, executing survivors by shooting them in the head. Twenty-four people were killed.
The prosecution claims Delic was informed of the crimes but failed to punish the perpetrators, instead awarding some among them the army’s highest honors.
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