Vaso Todorovic: Changed crime qualification

The State Prosecution is negotiating a guilt admission agreement with Vaso Todorovic, by which it would give up on the genocide charges and accuse him of crimes against humanity instead.

The Defence, which accepts such an agreement, claims that its client would agree to cooperate with the Prosecution and testify at other trials.

Only after the Court has admitted the evidence, which is to be presented by the Prosecution at the beginning of the trial, it will be possible to amend the indictment and sign a guilt admission agreement.

The current indictment alleges that Todorovic was “an accomplice in genocide” committed in Srebrenica in July 1995. It further alleges that, on July 13 he participated in the capture and murder of more than 1,000 Bosniaks in a warehouse in Kravica, by preventing the prisoners to escape while other soldiers were shooting at them.

“A guilt admission agreement is currently negotiated. We have defined all elements of such agreement. The Prosecution wants to change the indictment in terms of the legal qualification of the crime, which represents the last obstacle to the signing of the agreement. This is why we want to start presenting evidence, including a report on Todorovic’s examination as a suspect,” Prosecutor Ibro Bulic said.

According to the existing legislation, a person who committed crime against humanity, may be sentenced to “a minimum of ten years’ imprisonment or long-term imprisonment”. The same applies to a person who committed genocide.

Defence attorney Haris Bojic said that the Defence claimed, from the very beginning, that Vaso Todorovic had not committed genocide.

“Objectively, we consider that there are no genocide elements here. Those other crime qualifications are acceptable to us,” Bojic said.

The next hearing is due on October 13, when the indictment will be read and introductory arguments presented by the two parties.