Split Court Gives Ex-JNA General 16 Years, 94 in Total

The County Court in Split has convicted seven men of war crimes against the civilian population in the wider Sibenik area. Borislav Djukic, 78, a general of the former Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The seven sentences add up to 94 years. This is a first-instance ruling and the defence has announced an appeal.

How the sentences were split

The court divided the penalties according to each man’s place in the chain of command. Four defendants received 16 years each:

• Borislav Djukic, former JNA general
• Jovan Grubic
• Milan Radic
• Petar Andric

Vladimir Davidovic, Ilija Prijic and Slobodan Vujko were each given 10 years. Prijic and Vujko served as secretaries of the Knin police administration (SUP).

Presiding judge Zoran Ivanisevic explained the difference:

“The first four were convicted of active participation and issuing orders, while Davidovic, Prijic and Vujko were convicted because they failed to prevent or prosecute the crimes of their subordinates.”

What the indictment covered

The indictment spans August 1991 to August 1995 and settlements around Sibenik, Skradin, Vodice, Drnis, Promina and Ruzic. According to its findings:

• 118 civilians were killed
• five women were raped
• there were seven attempted rapes

Why was the dock empty?

Djukic is the only defendant available to the Croatian judiciary and he is being held in custody. The other six were tried in absentia. Djukic himself refused to be brought to the hearing, so he was not present when the verdict was read out. An eighth defendant, Dragan Harambasic, died in the meantime and proceedings against him were halted.

Eleven years since the arrest in Tivat

Djukic was arrested in July 2015 at the airport in Tivat and extradited to Croatia in March 2016. He has spent eleven years in detention.

This is not the first sentence the Split court has handed him. Over the blowing up of the Peruca dam in 1993 he was convicted at first instance three times before the same court. The first sentence of nine years was quashed by Croatia’s Supreme Court, the second of ten years was quashed as well, and a third ruling from 2024, also ten years, is not yet final. The appeal against it will be decided on September 9.

Defence lawyer Radivoj Nikolic said he would challenge this verdict too:

“No valid evidence was presented during the trial, and the court’s conclusions have no evidentiary basis.”

The file now follows the same route as the Peruca case, to the Supreme Court of Croatia, which twice sent that proceeding back for retrial. We have written before about war crimes verdicts handed down against Serbs outside Serbia, including the conviction of a former Serbian Interior Ministry officer before the court in Pristina. Djukic stays in custody in Croatia until the appeal is decided.