Thus, Damjanovic, who together with Branislav Herak and Nada Tomic got lost on November 11, 1992, and was captured by the Army BH, will be freed after almost ten years spent in prison.
Judge Orasanin found Damjanovic guilty of two charges in the indictment. First, that in early September 1992, together with Borislav Herak and his brother Nenad Damjanovic, he took Resad Beslija from an apartment in Vogosca to the village of Zuc, where they intended to kill him, but Beslija managed to escape. The second charge is that in June 1992, Damjanovic, together with Herak, physically maltreated war prisoner Adem Skroban.
Nevertheless, the list of the parts of the indictment rejected by the court is much longer and includes charges of participation in the ethnic cleansing of the villages of Kremes, Garez, Bratici and Zuc. In his sentencing address, judge Orasanin addressed other individual charges.
"It has turned out that Kasim and Asim Blekic were alive, and in the new indictment they were only given names. We did not have relevant evidence that the defendant had committed those murders [sic]," judge Orasanin said.
In his lengthy sentencing speech Orasanin also talked about questioning of the witnesses in connection with charges that Damjanovic had raped certain Amela and Mirsada, that he had taken away and murdered the married couple Alomerovic, and an unidentified man.
"This court has heard numerous witnesses, and none of them could confirm that Damjanovic participated in these truly tragic events. True, there are indications that Damjanovic could have murdered Zahida Beslija, but we must base our decisions on evidence," Orasanin concluded.
Thus, Damjanovic left the Sarajevo prison yesterday, and thanked the judge and the court bench after the sentencing. It should be reminded that Damjanovic's experience with courts was especially difficult, as was touched upon by judge Orasanin who emphasized that there was no doubt that Damjanovic had been tortured and maltreated after the capture. In the end, it should be mentioned that Branislav Herak, who was sentenced together with Damjanovic in 1993 to death, and after several modifications of the sentence received a final sentence of 20 years in prison, has been serving his sentence in the prison in Zenica.