COURTSIDE: Banovic Case

Nenad Banovic, charged over crimes committed at the Keraterm camp, was acquitted and released from the UN detention unit last week.

Nenad and his twin brother Predrag were accused of acts of violence against non-Serb detainees while serving as guards at Keraterm in 1992. But after they arrived at the detention unit, the prosecution discovered key witnesses could not distinguish the twins.

Although others insisted they could tell the difference between them and testified that Nenad had visited the camp and participated in the acts of violence, the prosecution recently discovered that he was never a guard in Keraterm.

After lodging a request for withdrawal of the charges, the trial chamber under Judge Richard May ordered his immediate release on April 10.

Predrag, who had demanded his brother's acquittal the moment they were arrested, remains in Scheveningen and will be tried together with Dusan Fustar, one of the shift commanders.

Four others have been found guilty so far for crimes at Keraterm. After admitting guilt, Keraterm security commander Dusko Sikirica was jailed for 15 years while two shift commanders, Damir Dosen and Dragan Kolundzija, received five and three years. Zoran Zigic, a "frequent visitor" to Keraterm and other camps in the Prijedor area (Omarska and Trnopolje), was sentenced to 25 years.

Vjera Bogati is an IWPR special correspondent at The Hague and a journalist with SENSE News Agency.