ICTY: Momcilo Krajisnik’s appeal to be presented
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On August 21 the Defence of Momcilo Krajisnik, former President of the Republika Srpska Parliament, is due to present its appeal to the first instance verdict, announced by the Hague Tribunal. The Defence will have two hours for the presentation.
“The time for presentation of your arguments is limited to two hours. You should focus on the joint criminal enterprise (JCE). You should coordinate with Mr. Alan Dershowitz, JCE counselor, on how to make the presentation within the available time limit,” pre-appeals judge Teodor Meron told Krajisnik.
In September 2006 a first instance verdict against Krajisnik was announced, sentencing him to 27 years imprisonment for crime against humanity, including persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and forced resettlement of the non-Serbian population during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Following the pronouncement of the verdict, the Prosecution, Defence and Krajisnik appealed the first instance verdict.
The Prosecution appealed “the inappropriately short imprisonment sentence” as well as the parts of the verdict acquitting Krajisnik of the charges for genocide and complicity in genocide. The Prosecution is calling for a life sentence.
Krajisnik, who represents himself during the course of the appellate procedure, asked the Tribunal to appoint Alen Dersovic/Alan Dershowitz, a U.S. attorney as his counselor for joint criminal enterprise issues. Krajisnik was charged and sentenced, by the first instance verdict, for this crime.
In March this year Dersovic said that Krajisnik would present additional evidence, which were not available to him during the course of the trial. He also mentioned that the evidence comprised of some video recordings, but he did not provide any further details.
The ICTY Prosecution charged Krajisnik with having committed genocide and violated the practices and laws of warfare in Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the Trial Chamber determined that the indictee did not have “a particular intention to commit genocide”, claiming that the evidence “did not support the conclusion” that he was an accessory in the genocide.
The Chamber accepted the Prosecution’s allegations and pronounced Krajisnik guilty of having participated in a joint criminal enterprise, whose “general goal was to drastically reduce the number of Muslims and Croats, by deporting them.”
“Mr. Krajisnik approved the start of the deportation programme during the course of the Bosnian Serbs’ Assembly session, by calling for ‘the implementation of what we had agreed earlier, the ethnic division in the field’,” the verdict pronounced by the Trial Chamber says.
The Chamber determined that Krajisnik played “a key” role in those crimes.
Krajisnik was member of the National Safety Council and Main Board of the Serbian Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina, SDS, and president of the Republika Srpska Assembly.
He has been held in custody since April 2000.
