A Serbian locksmith who lived in Britain for a decade and holds a British passport went on trial for war crimes today for his alleged part in the massacre of more than 200 people.
Milorad Pejic, 40, had led a relatively obscure life in Corby, Northamptonshire, until he was charged in connection with one of the worst single atrocities of the Balkan wars – a massacre at the Ovcara pig farm in Croatia 16 years ago.
A spokeswoman for the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor in Belgrade said Pejic's trial alongside 16 co-accused was expected to run until October.
Pejic is an ethnic Serb from the Croatian border town of Vukovar. He had lived in Corby for 10 years until his arrest in Belgrade in March when he went to visit his mother.
He is alleged to have been a member of the Serb "territorial defence" unit that in November 1991 razed Vukovar, bussed hundreds of people from the town's hospital to a farm a few miles away, beat them for hours and shot them. Exhumation of mass graves has turned up 261 corpses.
In Corby, Pejic raised two sons, now aged eight and 14, owned a three-bedroom house and was regarded as a pillar of the local Serbian community, many of whom refuse to believe the charges against him. Belgrade prosecutors had wanted to question Pejic in December 2003. They issued an international arrest warrant for him in 2006.
The charge sheet says Pejic and his accomplices murdered around 200 people and names 192 of the victims, some of whom were killed "by slicing their throats with knives". It says the killers were ordered to load "groups of 30-40 captives on a tractor-trailer [who were] transported in five or six turns to the execution site". The victims were lined up before firing squads "in front of previously dug pits".
Pejic is being tried alongside 16 other suspects who are being retried for their part in the farm massacre. They were previously found guilty of the crimes and sentenced to jail terms of up to 20 years but the supreme court in Belgrade ordered a retrial by Serbia's special war crimes court.
Pejic has denied any involvement in the massacre.
