BOSNIAN STATE COURT SENTENCES CROATIAN WAR CRIMINAL NIKOLA ANDRUN TO 18 YEARS IN PRISON

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (August 20,2008) - The Appellate Panel of Section I for War Crimes of the Bosnian State Court granted the appeals filed by the Bosnian State Prosecutor’s Office and the Defense Counsel for Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun and revoked the first-instance Verdict by which Croatian war criminal was found guilty of the criminal offense of War Crimes against Bosnian civilians and sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment, and yesterday,on 19 August 2008,delivered the second-instance Verdict by which the Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun was found guilty of the criminal offense of War Crimes against Bosnian civilians and sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment.

In the operative part of the Verdict, the Appellate Panel stated that Nikola Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun, as the Deputy Gabela Concentration Camp Commander,from June to September 1993,during the Croatian aggressio against Bosnia in the Gabela Camp, together with other Croatian fascist aggressor's soldiers, participated in the murders and torture of the detained Bosnian civilians and subjected them to inhumane treatment.


Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun

The Bosnian State Court, inter alia, established that the Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun, together with another Croatian fascist barbarian, in late September or early October 1993, took out a detained Bosnian civilian from the Gabela concentration camp and took him to in Čapljina, where he himself participated in his mental and physical abuse.

It was further established that Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun, on an unspecified date in September 1993, in the afternoon hours, came to one of the hangars in the Gabela concentration camp, and took one of the detained Bosnian civilians out of there, and he had been unaccounted for until his mortal remains were exhumed and identified in 1996.

The Bosnian State Court established that Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun on an unidentified date in October 1993, in the evening hours, in the Gabela concentration camp, after a detained Bosnian civilian refused to comply with his order, he entered the hangar together with an Croatian fascist aggressor's soldier known to him, took the Bosnian civilian out of the hangar, whereupon several unknown Croatian fascist barbarians, in the presence of Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun, tortured the detained Bosnian civilian, whereupon he died.

Further on, on two occasions, in August and September 1993, together with the Gabela concentration camp commander, Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun transferred a group of Bosnian civilians from the Gabela concentration camp to the Silos concentration camp near the southern Bosnian town of Čapljina, with the aim to prevent the employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross to make a list of these Bosnian civilians.

Croatian war criminal Nikola Andrun is acquitted of the charge that in early July 1993 he took part in the inhumane treatment of a group of detained Bosnian civilians.

"The number of crimes, unnecessary cruelty, the fact that he was deputy concentration camp commander determined the verdict as it is now," said Appellate Chamber Chairwoman Azra Miletic.

"Andrun was not forced to commit those crimes, but he deliberately caused physical and mental suffering on the basis of discriminatory treatment of Bosnian civilians. He had the power to take detainees out of the concentration camp, which means that his actions were deliberate and premeditated," Miletic explained.
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