THE APPEALS CHAMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL RESIDUAL MECHANISM FOR CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS DELIVERS JUDGEMENT IN THE KARADŽIĆ CASE
The Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals composed of Judge Vagn Prüsse Joensen, presiding, Judge William Hussein Sekule, Judge José Ricardo de Prada Solaesa, Judge Graciela Susana Gatti Santana, and Judge Ivo Nelson de Caires Batista Rosa delivered today its judgement on the appeals filed by Mr. Radovan Karadžić and the Prosecution against the judgement rendered on 24 March 2016 by a Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”).
Mr. Karadžić, who was a founding member of the Serbian Democratic Party and, from 17 December 1992, served as President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of its armed forces, was convicted by the Trial Chamber of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws or customs of war and sentenced to 40 years of imprisonment.
The Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) dismissed the criminal charge filed by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) at the beginning of February 2019, for the crimes against humanity committed in October 1991 in Morović (Šid). It was then that members of the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) took the Abjanović brothers from their house, after which every trace of them was lost. The criminal charge was dismissed because, in the interpretation of the OWCP, the prosecution of crimes against humanity violates the principle of legality. With this explanation, the OWCP continues its practice of failing to process crimes against humanity committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia, thus denying the right of a large number of victims to finally receive justice.
