Ovčara case to be retried

Belgrade, December 15 (Source: B92) - Serbia’s Supreme Court has cancelled the verdicts in the Ovčara case tried before Belgrade’s War Crimes Court.

The Supreme Court has announced that it has ruled in favor of both the defense and the prosecution’s appeals. A part of the verdict finding some of the accused guilty was overturned, but also that part which acquitted some others. Effectively, the entire verdict has been cancelled and the trial will start over.

The prosecution has expressed its surprise and disappointment.

Belgrade District Court’s war Crimes Trial Chamber last year sentenced 14 out of the 16 persons accused of war crimes in Ovčara farm to a total of 219 years in prison. They stood trial for the murder of over 200 Croatian prisoners after the fall of Vukovar in 1991.

Special prosecution spokesman Bruno Vekarić told B92 that the prosecution was unpleasantly surprised by the Supreme Court ruling.

“As war crimes prosecution office, we will do everything in the legal sense of the word to have the truth about what happened in Ovčara recognized in a court ruling as well, and for the victims to he honoured with justice”, he said.

“Someone did kill over 200 people there and someone must be held accountable for that, and I do believe we have the people who did it”, Vekarić said.

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