Over the past 12 months, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued two indictments for genocide committed in July 1995, while Serbia’s judiciary has handed down one verdict for crimes committed in Srebrenica during the same period. Bosnia and Herzegovina also saw its first final conviction under amendments to the Criminal Code criminalising genocide denial.

Murat Tahirović, president of the Association of Victims and Witnesses of Genocide, said that in previous years no indictments were filed and there was no effective work on Srebrenica-related cases, resulting in only one, or sometimes no, genocide verdict being delivered each year.

“On the other hand, there are numerous other crimes that are not being prosecuted at all, even though, under the National War Crimes Processing Strategy, which we opposed, complex cases, including genocide cases, fall under the jurisdiction of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The lack of action is now producing its results. But if you ask the Prosecutor’s Office, they will tell you the statistics show something entirely different,” Tahirović told BIRN BiH.

According to him, prosecutions have slowed significantly, especially because, over the past decade, the average has been one, two, or no genocide indictments per year. He warned that authorities will soon claim there are no witnesses left.

In his opinion, the existing indictments are highly questionable, as is the manner in which court proceedings are being conducted, with only one hearing often being held per month.

“The process of filing indictments has collapsed since 2008. The result is weak indictments and a poor institutional approach by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Tahirović said.

In a response to Detektor, the State Prosecutor’s Office said that it has so far issued around 37 indictments against more than 86 individuals for genocide and war crimes committed in and around Srebrenica in July 1995.

It added that these indictments have resulted in final prison sentences amounting to several hundred years. Of the nearly 800 years of imprisonment imposed by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and regional courts, around 440 years of final prison sentences were based on indictments filed by the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Prosecutor’s Office noted that some indictments were filed in cases in which victims’ families had waited for years for those responsible to be prosecuted. It also pointed out that, for the first time in 2025, domestic courts indicted members of engineering brigades accused of burying and later concealing the remains of more than 4,000 victims in 24 secondary mass graves.

The Prosecutor’s Office added that several investigations and criminal complaints concerning events in and around Srebrenica in the summer of 1995 remain active against dozens of suspects.

The Belgrade Court of Appeal recently upheld the acquittal of former Republika Srpska Army (VRS) Drina Corps commander Milenko Živanović, who had been charged with war crimes against civilians committed in the Srebrenica area in 1992 and 1995.

Earlier, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina had indicted Živanović for crimes against humanity committed in the Srebrenica and Žepa areas in July 1995. After he failed to appear three times to enter a plea, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered an international arrest warrant. The indictment in Belgrade followed the one issued in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Five Srebrenica-related trials are currently underway before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, four of them involving genocide charges.

Seven former VRS commanders and members are being tried for the genocide of 65 Bosniaks in the Šekovići and Vlasenica areas in July 1995. Six former members of the Zvornik Brigade are also on trial for allegedly aiding and supporting the organised killing of Bosniak men in Orahovac on July 13 and 14, 1995. The last hearing in that case was held at the end of January this year.

Two former members of the Milići Brigade are being tried for the murder of 31 Bosniak civilians from Srebrenica at Jasikovača, while five former members of the Zvornik and Bratunac brigades are charged with aiding genocide by participating in the detention of about 830 Bosniaks from Srebrenica at a school in Roćević and their subsequent transport and execution on the banks of the Drina River near Kozluk.

Proceedings have also been ongoing for several years against former Vlasenica Brigade commander Mile Kosorić. A hearing scheduled for mid-June, at which the State Prosecutor’s Office was expected to present its closing arguments, was postponed.

To date, the ICTY, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and courts in Serbia and Croatia have convicted a total of 54 people, sentencing them to 781 years in prison and five life sentences for genocide, crimes against humanity and other crimes committed in Srebrenica in July 1995. The ICTY convicted 18 individuals, imposing five life sentences and a total of 219 years in prison; the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted 28 people to a combined 464 years; six people were convicted in Serbia and two in Croatia.

Five years ago, former High Representative Valentin Inzko imposed amendments to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina criminalising the denial of genocide and war crimes. Over the past 12 months, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has issued its first final conviction under those amendments.

Vojin Pavlović was sentenced to a single prison term of three and a half years for glorifying convicted war criminals and for approving and attempting to justify the Srebrenica genocide by organising a gathering in Bratunac on July 11, 2023. He also produced posters for the event bearing the slogan: “July 11 – Srebrenica Liberation Day, Thank You to the Army of Republika Srpska”.

Tahirović said that Bosnia and Herzegovina’s judiciary has failed to meet the challenge in the way the Hague Tribunal did.

“Many criticise the Hague Tribunal without understanding the scale and significance of its work. Thanks to the Tribunal, victims have at least partially obtained justice,” he said.