Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

On 10 May 1993, HVO forces attacked the Vranica settlement, captured 70 Bosniak civilians and soldiers, and transferred them to the building of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Mostar. The command of the 3rd HVO Military Police Battalion had been stationed at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering since 1993. The prisoners were subjected to daily abuse and torture. On the night of 10 May, 12 prisoners of war from the Army of RBiH who were detained at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering were subjected to repeated abuse and had been missing since that night. In May 2007, a mass grave was found in Goranci, Mostar Municipality. Based on DNA analyses, it was found that among the 15 identified bodies, there were 10 belonging to the 12 ARBiH soldiers that had been captured in Vranica. The prisoners were moved from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering to other detention centres at Heliodrom and Gabela.

For crimes committed at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty in Mostar, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted the wartime president of HVO and prime minister of HZHB Jadranko Prlić, under the doctrine of command responsibility, and sentenced him to 25 years in prison; the commander of the HVO Main Staff Slobodan Praljak was sentenced to 20 years in prison; the chief of the HVO Main Staff and deputy commander of the HVO forces Milivoje Petković was sentenced to 20 years in prison; the head of the HVO Military Police Administration Valentin Ćorić was sentenced to 16 years in prison; and the head of the Service for Prisoner Exchange Berislav Pušić was sentenced to 10 years in prison.