Bosnian Muslim war commander arrested in Geneva

Oric (centre in suit) has been previously convicted, then cleared, of war crimes offences. Keystone

Former Bosnian Muslim military commander Naser Oric has been arrested in Geneva on an international warrant issued by Serbia alleging war crimes. Oric was detained when crossing the border from France.

The warrant alleges that Oric was responsible for the 1992 deaths of nine Serbian civilians in the village of Zalazje, near to Srebrenica, during the Balkans conflict. At the time, Oric was commander of Bosnian Muslim forces holed out in the encircled Srebrenica.

Srebrenica was overrun by Bosnian Serbian forces in 1995, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 8,000 people whose bodies were dumped in a mass grave.

According to Reuters, the current Mayor of Srebrenica, Camil Durakovic, who was with Oric at the time of his arrest in Switzerland on Wednesday, told Bosnian state television that they were visiting Geneva for a series of events to mark the massacre.

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice said Oric was contesting his extradition. Serbia now has 18 days to submit a formal extradition request.

“The Serbian authorities suspect that, between 1992 and 1995, Oric and other members of the Bosnian Muslim forces repeatedly attacked Serbian villages in the Srebrenica region to drive out the civilian Serbian population with a campaign of intimidation, torture and murder,” the statement read.

In 2006, Oric was sentenced by the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to two years in prison for not doing enough to prevent crimes committed against Serbs during the conflict. But he was then acquitted of all charges two years later.

The justice ministry said it would have to check whether extradition is still permitted in light of that acquittal.