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.
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.
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.
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.
Gjelosh Krasniqi, a member of the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was sentenced on 29 April 2009 to seven years of imprisonment for a war crime against civilian population committed during the armed conflict in Kosovo in 1999. The court proceedings conducted before the Peć/Pejë District Court Trial Chamber presided by Judge Gjanfranco Gallo was fair, but the sentence was inadequately mild in comparison with the gravity of the crime committed.
The Decision reached by the War Crimes Trial Chamber of the Belgrade District Court sentencing former commander of the Suva Reka police station Radojko Repanović and policeman Slađan Čukarić to 20 years in prison, reserve policeman Miroslav Petković to 15 years in prison and former State Security inspector Milorad Nišavić to 13 years in prison while acquitting Radoslav Mitrović, the former commander of the 37th PJP battalion, assistant commander of the Suva Reka police station, and reserve police officer Zoran Petković of the criminal responsibility for the murder of 49 members of the Berisha family and Abdullah Elshani is unjust for both the victims and the accused.
The trial for the war crime committed in Suva Reka in March 1999 when 50 Albanians civilians were killed came to its end on April 6, following closing arguments given by the Deputy War Crimes Prosecutor Mioljub Vitorović and victims’ legal representative Nataša Kandić. On trial for this crime are former commandant of the 37th Special Police Unit battalion Radoslav Mitrović, commander of the Suva Reka police station Radojko Repanović, and five police officers.
The presentation of closing arguments was attended by five members of the Berisha family as well as media representatives from Kosovo (Radio Koha Ditore, TV Klan, Koha Ditore, and Suva Reka radio station).
The judgment by the War Crimes Trial Chamber of the Belgrade District Court will be handed down at 13:00 on April 23, 1999.
On 13 March 2009 the internationalized trial chamber of the Kosovo Supreme Court acquitted a Kosovo Albanian Florim Ejupi of all charges in relation to the terrorist attack on the Niš-Ekspress bus, which occurred on 16 February 2001 in the vicinity of Podujevo in which 11 Serbs were killed and ten were wounded “due to lack of evidence.”