30 years without justice: First-instance verdict in Štrpci Case overturned – trial restored
On 30 October 2023, the Court of Appeal in Belgrade issued a decision[1] annulling the first-instance verdict in the Štrpci Case and returning the case for retrial. The Humanitarian Law Center considers it inadmissible that thirty years after the abduction and murder of twenty civilians in Štrpci, the judicial authorities are unable to conduct the procedure in a professional manner and reach a verdict.
Initiating the proceedings again implies the re-traumatisation and exhaustion of the families of the victims and witnesses in this proceeding, as well as the trivialisation of war crimes trials. Such a decision not only delays the imprisonment of the direct perpetrators, one of whom has already died during the proceedings, but also the hope that representatives of the civil, military and police authorities of Serbia and of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia who were familiar with the kidnapping plan in Štrpci, will be prosecuted for the crime. This procedure has not contributed to the discovery of the mortal remains of the victims, which is one of the goals of the National Strategy for the War Crimes Prosecution.