On the occasion of the election of the Chief Public Prosecutor for War Crimes

On the occasion of the election of the Chief Public Prosecutor for War Crimes

Deklaratat - 2The High Prosecutorial Council (HPC) is in the process of selecting the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Public Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (POWCP). Snežana Stanojković has applied for the position again. She held the position until the end of her term on 31 May 2023, when she continued to hold it as Acting Prosecutor.

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) points out that it is necessary for a new prosecutor to be elected within the legal deadline, i.e. by the end of May, in order to avoid the problems that arose in the earlier period, when the Republic of Serbia did not have a prosecutor for war crimes for 17 months. Such a drastic delay in the election of a chief prosecutor jeopardised the conduct of war crimes proceedings, since the deputy prosecutors for war crimes in the period from 1 January 2016 to 31 May 2017, when Stanojković took office, did not have the authority to raise and represent indictments or take any actions in the proceedings.

The position of the Humanitarian Law Center is that Snežana Stanojković should not be re-elected as the Chief Public Prosecutor for War Crimes, as her previous work has shown extremely poor results, and incompetence in the performance of her function, and has led to the collapse of the credibility of the Public Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor. Stanojković’s mandate was marked by the small number of indictments, the non-transparent work of the Prosecutor’s Office, the lack of communication with the public, and the assessment of fellow prosecutors that her work was unprofessional.


Too little, too late: After 14 years, the first-instance verdict was pronounced for crimes in the Kosovo villages of Ćuška, Ljubenić, Pavljan and Zahać

Too little, too late: After 14 years, the first-instance verdict was pronounced for crimes in the Kosovo villages of Ćuška, Ljubenić, Pavljan and Zahać

#IzSudnice - Sajt - 3Fourteen years after the original indictment was filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes (PPOWC), the Higher Court in Belgrade, on 24 April 2024, issued a first-instance verdict in the retrial for war crimes committed in the villages of Ljubenić, Ćuška, Pavljan and Zahać during April and May 1999.

The court sentenced to 20 years in prison the defendant Toplica Miladinović, commander of the 177th Military-Territorial detachment (177th VTO) Peć, a unit under the command of the 125th Motorised Brigade of the Yugoslav Army (VJ). In the same verdict, the court also found guilty six members of the 177th VTO Peć, and sentenced Predrag Vuković to 13 years in prison, Abdulah Sokić to 12 years, Siniša Mišić to five years, and Slaviša Kastratović, Lazar Pavlović and Boban Bogićević to two years each. Veljko Korićanin and Milan Ivanović were acquitted of all charges.


Human rights organizations from Serbia call on the Government and the President of Serbia to support the UN Resolution on the International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide

Human rights organizations from Serbia call on the Government and the President of Serbia to support the UN Resolution on the International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide

Deklaratat - 8Human rights organizations from Serbia strongly support the adoption of a United Nations resolution designating July 11th as the “International Day of Reflection and Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide.”

The facts about the Srebrenica genocide and its legal characterization have been determined beyond reasonable doubt by the judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.

The first judgment for genocide in Srebrenica was delivered to the Commander of the Drina Corps of the Army of Republika Srpska, Radislav Krstić, in April 2004. The then-president of Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, and the wartime commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, Ratko Mladić, who were sentenced to life imprisonment, have also been convicted of genocide, along with Vujadin Popović, Ljubiša Beara, Drago Nikolić and  Zdravko Tolimir.


HLC Submits Criminal Complaints for War Crimes in Kalesija and Vlasenica in 1992

HLC Submits Criminal Complaints for War Crimes in Kalesija and Vlasenica in 1992

#IzSudnice - Sajt - 4The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) has filed criminal complaints with the Public Prosecutor’s Office for War Crimes of the Republic of Serbia, against Slobodan Pajić and Vlastimir Bećarević, former officers of the First Birač Infantry Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), on reasonable suspicion that they ordered and/or committed war crimes in the municipalities of Vlasenica and Kalesija during May and June 1992.

The criminal complaints against Pajić and Bećarević are the result of the Humanitarian Law Center’s research into war crimes committed in the zone of responsibility of the First Birač Infantry Brigade under the command of Svetozar Andrić. The HLC presented the findings of this research to the public in late February 2024 in the Dossier “Svetozar Andrić“. The First Birač Infantry Brigade of the VRS, formed in May 1992, participated in the expulsion of the non-Serb population from the municipalities of Zvornik, Vlasenica, and Kalesija, the killing of civilians during the occupation of the territory, and the burning and destruction of villages.


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