SARAJEVO, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Appellate Panel of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH) Court acquitted on Thursday former Serb commander, Goran Saric, of involvement in genocide in Srebrenica in 1995.

The indictment alleges that Saric, as commander of Republika Srpska Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) Special Police Brigade, along with other units of army and police, knowingly assisted in genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995.

The indictment "charges Saric of securing the Bratunac-Konjevic Polje road near Srebrenica and capture of Bosniak civilians who were trying to escape to territory controlled by the Army of BiH after Bosnian Serbs had overrun UN-protected areas of Srebrenica.

"At that time, several hundred civilians were captured and Bosniaks who tried to escape from this police check-point were allegedly shot at and told to surrender. The Indictment alleges that 1,000 Bosniaks later were executed in the Kravica warehouses with firearms and hand grenades."

The Appellate Panel of BiH's Court concluded that the attack happened in Srebrenica, but that on the basis of pieces of evidence presented, the Court could not conclude that Saric knew about the genocidal intention of the main perpetrators.

"What is controversial and what should be resolved in this case is whether the accused personally, through the securing of the members of the Special Police Brigade and the supervision of them, took part in that attack, and which is not beyond reasonable doubt proved," read the second-instance verdict with no possibility of appealing against it.

Saric was acquitted on charges of issuing instructions for the massacre, and of exercising control over his deputy Ljubomir Borovcanin, who is sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to 17 years in prison for Srebrenica genocide.

Saric, 54, was arrested on Nov. 2, 2011 in Bijeljina, a city located 180 kilometers northeast of BiH's capital Sarajevo. Enditem

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