Open Letter to the High Prosecutorial Council Regarding the Appointment of the War Crimes Prosecutor

Dear Members of the High Prosecutorial Council,

We are writing to you regarding the appointment of the Chief War Crimes Prosecutor, considering your responsibility to appoint a person with professional integrity to this critical position, whose leadership will enhance the work of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the War Crimes (OWCP) and contribute to the more efficient prosecution of war crimes. Given that more than thirty years have passed since the beginning of the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, the upcoming mandate of the Chief Prosecutor is of exceptional importance, as there is less and less time to bring those responsible for crimes to justice.

In this context, we express concern that Ms. Snežana Stanojković is again among the candidates for this position despite the serious shortcomings and erosion of the OWCP’s credibility during her previous term.

During the seven years under her leadership, the OWCP has raised just 16 indictments based on its own investigations. Such a small number of indictments is inadequate, especially considering that the Prosecutor’s Office had doubled its capacity during the same period, with the number of prosecutors increasing from five to twelve between 2017 and 2023. Regional cooperation was reduced to adopting indictments from Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the OWCP avoided transferring cases involving foreign nationals arrested in Serbia.

Ms. Stanojković’s management of the OWCP also jeopardized some of the proceedings and severely undermined the institution’s credibility and reputation. For example, in the Srebrenica II case, the Prosecutor’s Office lost an important piece of evidence supporting the indictment, as in 2021, it hired Mr. Mile Stojković as a military expert witness, even though he was not registered as a court expert and his accreditation had expired in 2005.

We remind the High Prosecutorial Council that in making its decision, it should also consider the repeated negative opinion of the OWCP collegium regarding Ms. Stanojković’s candidacy. In a negative opinion submitted by the OWCP collegium in March 2024 during the previous (annulled) selection process, seven out of ten prosecutors assessed that Stanojković did not meet the criteria of expertise, integrity, and competence for performing the function. In their explanation, the prosecutors pointed to professional shortcomings and a profoundly inappropriate and unprofessional attitude toward colleagues, significantly hindering their work.

The collegium’s negative opinion confirmed expert assessments about the lack of results, noting that during her mandate and “despite clear strategic guidelines and tripled capacity, the OWCP failed even to match results from earlier periods, which were themselves assessed as unsatisfactory.”

Throughout her mandate, Ms. Stanojković rendered the OWCP ineffective, non-transparent, and invisible to the public.

In presenting her program for improving the OWCP’s work on April 4, 2025, Ms. Stanojković emphasized her commitment to a more active role of prosecutors in pursuing compensation claims for victims, especially in cases involving sexual violence. However, already in the second year of her mandate, the Supreme Court of Cassation issued Guidelines on Deciding on Property Claims in Criminal Proceedings, outlining how public prosecutors should proceed to ensure victims’ right to compensation. Despite these Guidelines, under Ms. Stanojković’s leadership, the OWCP failed to apply them in practice, even in cases of sexual violence.

Considering all these facts and arguments, the reappointment of Ms. Snežana Stanojković as Chief War Crimes Prosecutor would represent a serious step backward in the fight against impunity for war crimes. Such a decision would mean the continuation of ineffective and inefficient prosecution of war crimes. It would also result in giving up on the invaluable opportunity, within the limited time remaining, to bring perpetrators of war crimes to justice and provide victims with the justice they deserve.

Respectfully,

Humanitarian Law Center
Association KROKODIL
Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms
Women in Black
International Aid Network I.A.N.
Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR)
Center for Judicial Research (CEPRIS)
CRTA
Civic Initiatives
Civic Action Pančevo
YUCOM Lawyers’ Committee for Human Rights
Youth Center CK13
Autonomous Women’s Centre