War Crimes Prosecutor’s Appeal Upheld

The Serbian Supreme Court overruled the judgement of the Belgrade War Crimes Chamber which had acquitted Sinan Morina, a one-time member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), of all charges that he had committed a war crime against Serbian civilians in Kosovo in 1998.


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Maximum sentence for Crime at Ovčara

BEOGRAD, 23 June 2009 – The War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court, presided by Judge Vesko Krstajić, found Damir Sireta guilty of the criminal act of a war crime against prisoners of war from Article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (KZ SRJ), in relation to Article 22 of the KZ SRJ, and sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment.


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Four Scorpions sentenced to severest punishment for war crimes against Albanian civilians

BELGRADE, 18 June 2009 — The War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court, presided by Judge Snežana Nikolić-Garotić, found four members of the Scorpions, a reserve unit of the Serbian Ministry of Interior, guilty of committing a war crime against Albanian civilians on March 28th 1999 in Podujevo, Kosovo, and sentenced Željko Đukić, Dragan Medić and Dragan Borojević to 20 and Miodrag Šolaja to 15 years’ imprisonment.


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Nataša Kandić withdraws from the Bytyqi brothers murder trial

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.


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Trial of Trbojević Just but Punishment Lenient

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.


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Trials for war crimes and ethnically and politically motivated crimes in post-Yugoslav countries

In 2008, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) monitored all trials held in Serbia for war crimes, murders and other criminal offences committed in the context of armed conflicts, all trials conducted in Kosovo for war crimes and ethnically or politically motivated criminal offences and selected war crimes trials in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as part of regional cooperation on monitoring war crimes trials before national courts.


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