Nataša Kandić, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) sent a letter earlier today to Justice Vesko Krstajić, member of the Trial Chamber of the Belgrade District Court informing him of her decision to stop representing the Bitići/Bytyqi family in the criminal proceedings against the accused Sreten Popović and others because it is her and the Bitići/Bytyqi family’s opinion that the trial is not intended to bring justice to the victims but to protect those who ordered the cold-blooded murder of Agron, Mehmet, and Yllia Bytyqi from criminal responsibility.
On May 27th 2009, the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court presided by Judge Snežana Nikolić-Garotić rendered a guilty judgement against Boro Trbojević and sentenced him to ten years imprisonment for a war crime against civilian population. The Republic of Croatia Office of the Prosecutor referred this case to the Republic of Serbia Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor. Namely, the Cantonal Court in Bjelovar convicted Boro Trbojević in absentia along with now late Bogdan Trbojević for the same criminal act and sentenced them to 20 years of imprisonment each.
The Fifth Regional Forum on Transitional Justice in Post-Yugoslav Countries will begin on May 29th in Bečići, near Budva, and will end on Sunday May 31st. The forum is organized by the Centre for Civic Education and Human Rights Action from Montenegro on behalf of a Coalition of more than 200 non-governmental organizations and individuals from the region, who will use the forum to continue the debate on establishing a Regional Commission to investigate and disclose the facts about war crimes and other serious human rights violations (RECOM) on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.
The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) lodged an appeal against the judgment of the First Municipal Court in Belgrade rendered on April 28th 2009 that dismissed the HLC’s lawsuit against the Republic of Serbia which HLC had filed on behalf of 14 Albanian victims of a war crime committed by members of the Scorpions – a reserve unit of the Serbian Ministry of Interior.