Detention extended for Israeli accused of killing 1,200 Muslims in Bosnia

Jerusalem’s central court has extended the detention of the 42 year old man known as ‘Alexander Spintkovitz’ pending the completion of legal proceedings against him. The Authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina suspect Spintkovitz of involvement in the killing of over 1,000 people during the Serbian massacre of Muslims in Srebrenica during the Bosnian War in 1995.

The court’s reasoning for the decision is that Spintkovitz was chosen by the commander of Unit 10 along with seven other soldiers to kill Muslim prisoners being held in a school. They were then moved to a farm in the town of Valencia where shackled prisoners were brought in buses and offloaded with their backs to the soldiers who then proceeded to kill them.

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It was also reported that at a particular moment, the suspect decided to change the weapon he was using to kill the prisoners from his personal weapon to the far more lethal M-84. In this way he was able to kill between 1,000 and 1,200 Muslims during a murderous 10-hour killing spree. This information reported in the Court’s reasoning for the legal decision is based on the testimonies of three other soldiers who were part of the same mission.

The Bosnian authorities requested the extradition of the suspect from Israel on 29 August 2010 and he was arrested on 18 January this year. Despite attempts by the defence to prevent his detention being extended, Judge Ben-Zion Granberg extended the detention order until his extradition to the Bosnian Authorities is properly considered.