In a court in the American city of Boston, a sentence was handed down to Kemal Mrndžić (51), a guard commander in the notorious Čelebići camp in Bosnia, where Serbian prisoners of war and civilians from Konjic, Jablanica, and the region were killed and tortured during the war.
Mrndžić was sentenced to 65 months in prison, and extradition proceedings will be initiated against him, and he will be stripped of his US citizenship and pension.
After serving his sentence, he will be extradited to Bosnia and Herzegovina and they will be asked to try Mrndžić for war crimes committed during the 1990s in the Čelebići camp.
Due to the fact that there were no laws in America at that time to prosecute war crimes, Mrndžić was only tried in this case for crimes committed on US territory, where he repeatedly lied to state authorities and immigration officers in order to obtain refugee status and then become a US citizen, concealing his true identity, participation in the war conflict, and the abuse of Serbian prisoners.
Željko Živak, a Serb from Konjic who lives in Chicago and one of the main witnesses for the prosecution, was present at the sentencing:
-The sentence is not adequate for the evil that Mrndžić inflicted on us, but considering the crimes for which he was tried in America, we can be satisfied because he received a sentence that is above the maximum that was prescribed. Namely, due to aggravating circumstances, the judge added ten more months to the maximum sentence of 55 months due to aggravating circumstances, namely due to the fact that numerous witnesses confirmed that Mrndžić had tortured them in Čelebići, Živak points out.

SATISFIED WITH THE SENTENCE: Željko Živak
He adds that the convicted Mrndžić behaved inappropriately during the sentencing and did not show any sign of remorse:
-He laughed during the sentencing and at no point admitted what he had done, nor did he repent or apologize. He behaved like a heartless monster, the same one who hit me and took a piece of bread from me at a time when I thought I would die of hunger in the Čelebići camp, the same one who broke two of my ribs for my cousin just because he got in his way.
Željko Živak is grateful to people from the US Homeland Security and the office of the Massachusetts Attorney John McNeil:
-I was surprised at how professionally they did their job and how dedicated they were to getting the truth out about the crimes committed against us Serbs in Bosnia. They did everything they could and showed touching respect for everything we went through.
Mrndić lived in America for over 25 years, and the trial revealed, among other things, that he presented himself as a Serb in the US during that period. Those most responsible for his arrest and subsequent conviction were his victims, the Serbs he tortured in the camp who, like him, came to America after the war.
With their harrowing testimonies, they contributed to Judge Joshua Levi stating during the sentencing that he was “moved by the heartbreaking testimonies of the camp survivors, whose physical and mental pain inflicted on them by Mrndžić and his colleagues haunts them even 30 years later.”
Živak particularly emphasizes prosecutor McNeil and his attitude towards the case:
-Since America did not have a law on war crimes in the 1990s, he insisted that the US, upon extradition, insist that Bosnia and Herzegovina try Mrndžić for war crimes. He expressed doubts that, if he were to be tried in Sarajevo, he would receive a deserved sentence and pointed out that the facts show that the courts in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentence Serbs for the same crimes while acquitting Bosniaks or sentencing them to lighter sentences than Serbs.
He also says that this verdict is a real denial of the writings of Bosnian media, who tried to cover up the crimes in Čelebići and wrote that the whole story was made up.
In the Čelebići camp from 1992-1995, Bosnian-Croatian forces brutally killed about 30 people of Serbian nationality, for which only three camp commanders have been convicted so far.
Željko Živak once told us in an exclusive confession about the tortures he and the other prisoners went through during their stay in the Čelebići camp. Watch the entire shocking testimony that our team filmed…
Text/Photo: Antonije Kovačević Foto: Arhiva (Logor Čelebići, MKSJ u Hagu)
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