Bosnia and Herzegovina exonerates ex-police officers.

During the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s, a Bosnian court acquitted a former police commander of killing eight ethnic Serb prisoners of war.

The court said in a statement that Dragan Vikic and three other former police officers were acquitted because “it was not shown that they had done the illegal crimes that they were accused of.”

After their car broke down in a Sarajevo suburb in April 1992, the eight victims, all Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) troops, were detained.

According to the prosecution, they were taken to a city park where they were shot dead and their remains were removed from the execution scene to conceal the murder.

So yet, only partial bones of two of them have been discovered.

Two of the police officers who testified alongside Vikic were accused of taking part in the shooting.

Vikic, who led a special Bosnian interior ministry unit, and another suspect were accused of knowing about the crime but failing to prevent it and punish the offenders.

When Vikic walked out of the courthouse after his acquittal, dozens of people, including many of his wartime companions, greeted him with clapping and cheers, according to local media.

“Dragan Vikic is the city’s hero!” read banners carried by some in the crowd, as others posed with him for photos.

During the 44-month siege of Sarajevo by Serb forces, almost 11,500 people were killed.

The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croats, Muslims, and Serbs lasted from 1992 until 1995.