The Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office said in a statement on Thursday it had decided to drop charges against Croatian war veterans Tihomir Purda, Danko Maslov and Petar Janjic due to a lack of evidence that they committed war crimes against the infirm and wounded.
The statement said that a total of 44 witnesses were heard in in the investigation against Purda, Maslov and Janjic - 13 in Serbia and 31 in Croatia - and that documentation pertaining to the case was gathered.
The State Prosecutor's Office notified an investigating judge of the Belgrade High Court of its decision who will then inform the Bosnian Justice Ministry, via the Serbian Justice Ministry.
The proceeding, carried out by military investigation agencies in the 1999, was not in accordance with legal standards for processing war crimes and owing to excellent judicial cooperation with the state prosecutor's offices of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, it was decided to withdraw the charges, the Serbian State Prosecutor's Office said in the statement.
The State Prosecutor's Office claims that none of the suspects had been interrogated by a military court investigating judge, as they were unavailable, given that they were exchanged in August 1992.
Purda has been held in extradition custody in Zenica, central Bosnian since his arrest at the northern border crossing of Orasje on 5 January this year on an international warrant issued by Serbia.
The State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina told press today that Purda will remain in the extradition prison in Bosnia and Herzegovina until the court is officially notified of the Serbian Prosecutor's Office decision that it dropped the charges against Purda and that it no longer requests Purda's extradition.
