Kazani pit

During and immediately after the war, 14 members of the 10th Mountain Brigade of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH) were convicted for the murders committed in Kazani, and for failing to report the crime and the perpetrators. The Higher Court in Sarajevo sentenced Zija Kubat, Esad Tucaković, Refik Čolak, and Mevludin Selak to six years in prison each for the murders at Kazani, while Senad Hasić, Sabahudin Žiga, Samir Seferović, Omer Tendžo, Esad Raonić, Samir Ljubović, Senad Haračić, and Armin Hadžić were sentenced to 10 months each for failing to report the crime and the perpetrators.

Later, the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Asif Alibašić to eight years in prison for murder and Suad Omanović to 10 years in prison for aiding and abetting murder. Sead Kadić was acquitted.

The commander of this unit, Mušan “Caco” Topalović, was killed in Sarajevo on October 26, 1993 during an arrest operation.

Unit member Samir Bejtić is the only person to have been tried for war crimes and murders before the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo in connection to Kazani. The indictment charged him with, among other things, participating in the beating of Ergin Nikolić and Duško Jovanović in September 1993, after which he, along with a group of soldiers and Mušan Topalović, drove them to the Boguševac location. There they continued to abuse Nikolić and Jovanović in a dugout, and then killed them and threw their bodies into the Kazani pits. Bejtić was also indicted with the murder of Zoran Vučurović at the Boguševac location in December 1992.

Bejtić was sentenced to 14 and half years in prison in 2006, but after several retrials and a multi-year trial, he was acquitted in April 2023 by a decision of the Supreme Court of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The verdict against Bejtić stated that from June 1992 to October 1993, three civilians and two members of the 10th Mountain Brigade of the ARBiH of Serb ethnicity were killed. Some of the victims’ bodies were thrown into the Kazani gorge after the murders. The verdict established the murder of another Serb civilian in June 1992, in the area of the Sarajevo Stari Grad Municipality. The victims were physically and psychologically abused and beaten before the murder, as stated in the verdict. The verdict charged Bejtić with only one count, war crimes against civilians, noting that he brought an illegally mobilised civilian to the demarcation line who was then killed by gunfire.

The murders were ascertained and confirmed by a verdict, regardless of the fact that Bejtić was finally acquitted of both war crimes and murders.

The exact number of those killed and thrown into the Kazani pit has not been established to this day.