Police Officers Charged With Murder of Kosovo Albanian Isa Emini Acquitted
According to the assessment of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), the trial and acquittal of Miloš Simonović and Republic of Serbia MoI Reserve Dragiša Marković for the murder of Isa Emini, an Albanian from Priština/Prishtin, rendered by the Court of Appeal in Niš on November 17th, 2011, raises serious doubts as to the declared willingness of the Judiciary of the Republic of Serbia to prosecute perpetrators of war crimes who are members of the Police.
The Humanitarian Law Center believes that the sentence rendered in this case, even though it may be considered strict, could have been stricter, since the victims of the crime were civilians who were murdered in a brutal manner, and the accused is a former member of the Reserve Police, who had an obligation to protect civilians. The accused in this case did not submit a guilty plea for the murder, nor did he show remorse or express his condolences to the family of the victims, thus preventing this trial from offering moral satisfaction for victims’ family members.
The 10th Sabotage Detachment, unit of the Main Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) participated in the commission of genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995. It has been established that members of this detachment took part in two mass executions of Muslims from Srebrenica.
The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia against more than 30 individuals, members of the former Territorial Defense (TO) and police station in Tenja (Croatia), as well as a number of members of the Novi Sad Corps of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), members of military and civilian secret services, and groups under the command of Željko Ražnatović Arkan for war crimes committed in Tenja in 1991 against the civilian population and prisoners of war.
Department for War Crimes of the High Court in Belgrade sentenced on September 23, 2011 the accused Veljko Maric to 12 years in prison for war crimes committed in 1991 against civilians in the village Rastovac (Croatia). The Humanitarian law Center believes that Veljko Maric, a Croatian citizen, should be tried in Croatia, that the Republic of Serbia should have extradited him to Croatia, and that it should have submitted evidence against him to the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia, in accordance with the 2006 Agreement on cooperation in the prosecution of war crimes offenders. HLC reminds that the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia has filed at least 10 indictments against war criminals, citizens of Serbia, based on evidence handed over to it by the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic fo Croatia.