Officer of the Police Directorate Zoran R. Gasovic he was arrested yesterday on the grounds of suspicion that he committed a criminal offense - a crime against humanity - during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
According to the claims of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (STP), he committed the crime in 1992 on the territory of the municipality of Hadžići.
Since 1996, Gašović has been a police officer at the Nikšić Security Center, and according to numerous Basan-Herzegovina media, he is responsible for numerous murders, robberies, robberies...
"According to the order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, the Special Police Department today, in Nikšić, deprived a Montenegrin citizen and an employee of the Z.G. war events in 1992," the statement of the prosecutor and spokesperson of the SDT states Vukas Radonjić.
News about the role of Gašić on the battlefield as early as 2016 sought answers from official bodies in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, but at that time it was said that checks were ongoing.
"We are familiar with the allegations presented in the media, we are carrying out certain checks and will contact our colleagues in Montenegro," she told "Vijesta" in January 2016. Adisa Karačić from the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The questions and answers followed after a local news agency published the information that Zoran Gašović, (who used to be surnamed Gašević), works in the Nikšić police, supposedly the former chief investigator and manager of the Hadžić camp "Garaža".
It was then announced that Gašović was linked to numerous individual murders in the camps and outside them, but also that he was also known for robberies, extortion, smuggling of goods, as well as for selling captured Bosniaks and Croats.
According to the same information, the witnesses accused him of the murder of several residents of Donji Hadžić, but of the 14 murdered Hadžić residents who were exhumed on Igman from the mass grave of Đurđevac.
Since 1996 in the Police Directorate
In the same year, the Montenegrin Police Administration responded to "Vijesta" that a police officer named Zoran Gašović has been employed at the Nikšić Security Center since 1996.
"We are not aware that the police officer Gašović had a different last name before. So far, the MUP police administration has not been contacted by colleagues from Bosnia and Herzegovina or judicial authorities from this country regarding any checks that would refer to officer Gašović. If the competent authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina request checks or express doubts about the possible existence of a criminal act, they will act in accordance with legal obligations", it is stated in the answers of the UP from 2016.
Tafro: The smith was protecting him
Zoran Gašović was an inspector in the Hadžići police station, which in 1992 was under the jurisdiction of the MUP of the Republic of Srpska. He participated in the mass persecution of Bosniaks and Croats from Hadžić, the imprisonment of people in the concentration camp in Sports Hall and the Garaža camp, the deportation of about 200 Bosniaks to East Sarajevo, to the Lukavica barracks, of which about 60 people were shot.
This is what he told "Vijesta" yesterday Aziz Tafro, co-author of the book "Hadžići - Crime without Punishment", on the occasion of yesterday's arrest of that officer of the Police Administration.
Tafro alleges that Gašović participated in the arrest, illegal imprisonment, mistreatment of people, and the organization of mass murders of civilians. He is also responsible, he adds, for taking Bosniaks to the Lukavica barracks, where they were killed.
"It was unbelievable that such a man works in the Montenegrin police. About three years ago, I filed a criminal complaint with the Montenegrin prosecutor's office, but I did not receive any response," explains Tafro, noting that he would like Gasović to have a fair and honest trial.
According to his words, he protected Gašević the whole time Tomislav Tomo Kovač, general of the police of Republika Srpska, who at one time was the chief of the Ilidža police station, which also included Hadžići.
After the war, Kovač was the Minister of Police, he is in Belgrade and disposes of large assets, and the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina accuses him of genocide in Srebrenica and war crimes committed in Ilidža.
Tafro claims that it is less important that Gasovic was arrested only now.
"We would all like absolute justice for war crimes to happen in an instant, but we have to understand that it is important that this process has continuity. It is enough for the citizens of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia to hear what this man did," Tafro points out.
I am ready to come to any court
The co-author of the book "Hadžići - Crime without Punishment" says that Gašović did not sue him because of the claims in the book.
"Gašović should be allowed to defend himself, let the prosecutors prove their case, and I am ready to come to any court, present evidence and testify about everything that happened in Hadžići", says Aziz Tafro.
Hadžići is one of the Sarajevo municipalities that was under the control of the VRS during the war.
Many of its inhabitants were expelled, killed or disappeared. Two mass graves were also found, which are assumed to hide the bodies of the citizens of this settlement.
Zoran Gašević joined the so-called Serbian police at the beginning of the war. After the occupation of the center of Hadžić in May 1992, he was appointed chief investigator. He was also the manager of the camp called Garaža.
The garage is considered a death camp and every other inmate in that camp was killed. Many have not been found even to this day. This is the first camp formed on the occupied territory of Hadžić.
Zoran's father Ratko Gašović was arrested at the end of January 2003 and sentenced to eight years in prison for war crimes also committed in Hadžići.
The first-instance verdict sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but in the appeal procedure the sentence was reduced to eight years.
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