Former prison camp inmates and victims of convicted war criminal Marko Radic expressed on Wednesday disappointment over his release from a Croatian prison after a Zagreb court reduced the 21 years-long prison sentence he had been handed in Bosnia.

Radic was convicted by Bosnia’s State Court, and served in Bosnia until his request to serve in Croatia was granted.

But once he was transferred, a court there reduced his sentence and released him three months ago.

“Marko Radic carries the name of a war criminal, and he should live with his conscience,” said one of the rape victims who refused to be named.

During the early 1990s war, Radic was the commander of the 1st Bijelo Polje Battalion of the 2nd HVO Brigade. HVO was the Bosnian Croat army.

According to the sentence, he took part setting up of prisons, ordered the unlawful arrest of a number of Bosniak civilians and was responsible for using men for forced labour and keeping them in brutal, humiliating and inhumane conditions.

He was running the notorious Vojno prison camp from 1993 until 1994 and was personally involved in the rape of female prisoners, which included a minor.

He should have been released in 2027 according to the Bosnian sentence.

Judges in Zagreb have cut his sentence short because the Croatian law does not recognize the concept of a joint criminal enterprise which some of the charges he was convicted of in Bosnia were related to.

Bosnia’s Justice Minister Josip Grubesa, said last year he had allowed Radic, who has Croatian citizenship, to continue serving his sentence in Croatia because Bosnia was a signatory to the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, under which every sentenced person has the right to serve the entire or a part of their sentence in their home country.

Although Radic was released on December 2 last year, the public was unaware of it until several days ago.

Among those who were imprisoned in the notorious Vojno prison camp was also Emir Hajdarevic who spent time in five different camps, but said that his 15 days in Vojno were the worst.

“He had two of his people who led the camp. Those were Mario Mihalj and Dragan Sunjic, nicknamed ‘Petarda’ (Firecracker), and they did everything Marko Radic told them to,” Hajdarevic said.

“Those were conditions for animals, we were imprisoned in a garage and experienced constant abuse,” he said.

According to reports by international institutions in Mostar, Radic was during and after the war one of the most powerful people in the city, and he was seen as an extremist.

As a former police officer, he was the main defendant regarding the assault on Bosniaks in the Liska park in 1997, during the Islamic holiday of Bajram (Eid). One person was killed and 23 were injured in the attack. Among those injured was also the then-Mostar Mufti.

“Three years after the Washington treaty and two years after the Dayton Agreement we were allowed to step into so-called ‘Croat’ land,” said former Mufti Seid effendi Smajkic. “It was a civilisational shock to experience such a massacre that was led by Marko Radic.”

Had Radic served the entirety of his sentence in Croatia, it would not have been a problem, the victims said, asking themselves how come the sentence was reduced and he was released.

“A domestic court can only take over a criminal case, accept the factual description, and it cannot influence the proclaimed sanction. In Croatia it is different. Another Court has the competency,” said lawyer Josip Muselimovic. “The rules in Croatia should have been checked and compared to our legislation.”

“If I was the judge who sentenced Radic to 21 years in prison and declared him a war criminal, I would initiate a new process and I would judge him again,” said Alija Behram, from the Centre for Peace and Multiethnic Cooperation.

“This result is difficult to understand and will likely be detrimental to the trust the victims and the public have into the Justice Ministry and the judiciary in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the UNMICT Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz wrote in his letter to Bosnia’s Justice Minister Josip Grubesa last year, asking for clarification for why he agreed for Radic to be transferred to Croatia and condemning the decision by Croatia’s judiciary.

Members of victims’ associations have submitted a report to Bosnia’s Head Prosecutor Gordana Tadic, accusing Grubesa of illegally transferring Radic to Croatia.

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