Court of Appeals in Belgrade: Three Years Imprisonment For War Crime Against Frail Old Man

The Court of Appeals in Belgrade has modified the judgment rendered by the Higher Court in Požarevac, by which the accused, Boban Petković, was found guilty of a war crime against a civilian population and sentenced to five years of imprisonment, and decreased his sentence to three years of imprisonment. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) holds that three years of imprisonment is an inappropriately mild sentence and that the mitigating circumstances that the Court of Appeals considered in the case of the accused are unacceptable from the standpoint of justice for victims of war crimes.

Discourses on war crimes trials in Serbia

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) presented on 21st November 2014 the Analysis of media discourses on war crimes trials in Serbia 2003-2013 and the Analysis of political discourses on domestic war crimes trials in Serbia 2003-2013. The main findings of the analyses were presented by the author, Dr Katarina Ristić, a researcher at the University of Leipzig. Before that, HLC Executive Director Sandra Orlović in her introductory remarks stressed that the Serbian media reporting seldom represented the cathartic element that opens the broader social dialogue about the past, and that the institutions themselves also did not perceive the trials as something that can generate dealing with the past. Thus war crimes trials, the only functional mechanism of transitional justice in Serbia, are unable to fully contribute to dealing with the past in Serbia.

Towards Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia – Session on Presentation of War Crimes Trials in Public

The fifth consultation session with regard to the production of a Draft Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia was held on Friday November 21st, 2014, in the Media Centre in Belgrade. This meeting was dedicated to the presentation of war crimes trials in public.

Towards Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia – Session on the Possibility of the Application of the Doctrine of Command Responsibility and Crimes Against Humanity For Crimes Committed in the 1990s

The fourth consultation session for the production of the Draft Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia was held Monday November 17th, 2014, in the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center. The meeting was dedicated to the possibilities of applying command responsibility and crimes against humanity committed during the 1990s.

Towards Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia – Session on the Protection of Witnesses and Victims of War Crimes

On Thursday, November 6th, 2014, in the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), the third consultative session regarding the Draft Strategy for the War Crimes Trials in Serbia was held. The meeting was dedicated to the topic of protection of witnesses and victims of war crimes.

Towards Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia – Pre-trial Phase in Cases of War Crimes Session

The second consultative meeting with regard to the Draft Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes was held on Tuesday, October 28th, 2014, in the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). The meeting was dedicated to the pre-trial phase in cases of war crimes.

Towards Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia – Support to Victims and Witnesses Session

The first consultation session regarding the creation of the draft Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes over the next ten years was held on Thursday October 9th, 2014, at the premises of the Library of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). The meeting was dedicated to the theme of support for victims and witnesses in war crimes cases in Serbia.

Presentation of the Analysis of the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia in the period 2004 to 2013

On September 30th 2014, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) presented its Analysis of the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia in the period 2004 to 2013. The Analysis encompasses the overview of practice, achievements and problems in the work of the institutions which were responsible for the enforcement of criminal justice in cases of crimes committed during the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, as well as 75 recommendations to institutions and other stakeholders. The Analysis provides a starting point for drafting the strategic guidelines for the prosecution of war crimes in the forthcoming decade, which will be handed to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia at the end of 2014.

Analysis of the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia 2004-2013

The Analysis contains 15 chapters that portray the work of key institutions in the prosecution of war crimes, putting forward the issues important for the credibility of war crimes trials in Serbia, such as the compliance of indictments and convictions in domestic cases, with the facts established by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The Analysis concludes with 75 recommendations to state bodies of the Republic of Serbia and international stakeholders on how to improve almost all aspects of the prosecution of war crimes in Serbia.

You can download the Analysis of the Prosecution of War Crimes in Serbia 2004-2013 here.

Racist Positions of the Court of Appeals in the Judgment in the Skočić Case

The War Crimes Department of the Court of Appeals in Belgrade (Court of Appeals Department) has quashed the judgment rendered by the Higher Court in the Belgrade War Crimes Department (Higher Court Department), by which seven members of “Simo’s Chetnicks”, a paramilitary unit, were found guilty of committing war crime in the village of Skočić (in the Municipality of Zvornik, B&H), and sent the case back for a new trial. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) holds that the judgment rendered by the Court of Appeals contains a number of controversial findings, and that the rationale based on racist positions are particularly unacceptable and utterly inappropriate for a court, as well as being highly offensive to the victims.