Bosnian state court upholds verdict acquitting Andrija Bjelosevic, a wartime security chief in the town of Derventa, of raping a Bosniak woman multiple times.
Emina Dizdarevic Tahmiscija
Bosnian state court upholds verdict acquitting Andrija Bjelosevic, a wartime security chief in the town of Derventa, of raping a Bosniak woman multiple times.
Andrija Bjelosevic. Photo: BIRN.
Bosnia’s state court said in a statement on Monday that its appeals chamber has rejected a prosecution appeal against the acquittal of Andrija Bjelosevic and upheld the first-instance verdict from November 2024.
“By the first-instance verdict of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the accused, Andrija Bjelosevic, was acquitted of the charges because it was not proven that with the actions described in the verdict sentence he committed the criminal offence with which he was charged in the indictment of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina – war crimes against the civilian population,” the court stated, citing the first-instance verdict.
Bjelosevic was cleared of raping a Bosniak woman at least four times at the Zaba (Frog) restaurant in the northern town of Derventa between November 1992 and April 1993, while he was head of the Doboj Security Service Centre.
According to the upheld verdict, the judges could not establish beyond reasonable doubt that Bjelosevic had committed the crime.
The judges stated that the woman was undeniably a victim of wartime sexual violence, but that the reliability of her testimony about the actions of the accused was called into question.
The court also could not establish beyond doubt that the event occurred during the period specified in the indictment.
The appeals chamber verdict cannot be appealed.
In December 2025, in a separate trial, Bjelosevic was also acquitted by a final verdict of committing crimes against humanity in the Doboj and Teslic areas.
