With Appeal Judgment on Vojislav Šešelj, Justice is Partially Achieved

On April 11 2018, the Appeals Chamber of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) in The Hague passed sentence with its final verdict on the President of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), Vojislav Šešelj, and reversed his acquittal by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Trial Chamber,  sentencing him to 10 years of imprisonment for encouraging persecution (forced displacement), deportation, and other inhumane acts (forcible transfer), as  crimes against humanity, and for committing persecutions in Hrtkovci in Vojvodina (violations of the right to security) as a crime against humanity. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) considers such a judgement  significant, since in this way the victims of deportation and persecution in Hrtkovci almost 26 years ago have received  judicial satisfaction; however, justice has only been partially satisfied, given the scope of the indictment against Šešelj, which encompasses the area of Sarajevo, as well as the municipalities of Zvornik, Nevesinje and Mostar in BiH, and Vukovar in Croatia.

APPEALS CHAMBER REVERSES ŠEŠELJ’S ACQUITTAL, IN PART, AND CONVICTS HIM OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

The Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, composed of Judge Theodor Meron, presiding, Judge Lee G. Muthoga, Judge Florence Rita Arrey, Judge Ben Emmerson, and Judge Ivo Nelson de Caires Batista Rosa delivered today its judgement on the appeal lodged by the Prosecution against the acquittal of Mr. Vojislav Šešelj.

The Appeals Chamber reversed Mr. Šešelj’s acquittal, in part, and dismissed the remainder of the Prosecution’s appeal. The Appeals Chamber entered convictions against Mr. Šešelj under Counts 1, 10, and 11 of the Indictment for instigating deportation, persecution (forcible displacement), and other inhumane acts (forcible transfer) as crimes against humanity, as well as for committing persecution, based on a violation of the right to security, as a crime against humanity. In particular, the Appeals Chamber found that the Trial Chamber erred in not holding Mr. Šešelj responsible for a speech he gave in Hrtkovci, Vojvodina (Serbia) on 6 May 1992 calling for the expulsion of the non-Serbian population.

(srpski) Nepravedna haška pravda za žrtve Šešeljevih zločina

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(srpski) Stjepanović: ‘Velika Srbija’ nije moguća bez masovnih zločina

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(srpski) Srpsko tužilaštvo ignoriše porodicu ubijene Ajše Šabanović

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(srpski) Ilir Bitići za N1: Vučić je obećao da će slučaj biti rešen

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The Hague Tribunal a “gold mine” of facts pertaining to us all

From March 19 to March 28, 2018, the exhibition “ICTY: the Kosovo Case 1998-1999” was presented at the Belgrade Center for Cultural Decontamination. Through video materials and selected documents, the exhibition showed how the crimes committed during the armed conflict in Kosovo were investigated, reconstructed and prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The authors of the exhibition were SENSE-Center for Transitional Justice from Pula and the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo, in cooperation with the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) and the Center for Dealing with the Past – Documenta. The exhibition relied on an interactive internet narrative, “ICTY: The Kosovo Case 1998-1999 – Investigation, Reconstruction and Prosecution of Kosovo Crimes“; and it is part of the permanent exhibition at the Kosovo Documentation Center in Priština.

Audit Report 2017

Audit Report for 2017.

(srpski) Pravda se ostavlja za sutra ili malo sutra

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Regarding the presentation of the Prosecutorial Strategy for the Investigation and Prosecution of War Crimes in the Republic of Serbia in the period 2018 to 2023

On Monday, March 12, 2018, the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) presented the Draft Prosecutorial Strategy for the Investigation and Prosecution of War Crimes in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2018-2023 (Draft), in accordance with the obligations of the Action Plan for Chapter 23 and the National War Crimes Prosecution Strategy (National Strategy). The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) considers that the method of presenting the draft was not transparent, and that the draft strategy does not offer any solution to overcoming the key shortcomings in the previous work of the OWCP, and fails to determine adequate measures for achieving the primary goal the more efficient prosecution of war crimes.