Mandic: Health Problems of the Judge and Indictee

The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been unable to complete the presentation of its first-instance verdict appeal in the case of Momcilo Mandic because Judge Marie Tuma, a member of the Appellate Chamber, failed to appear in court “due to poor health”.

“My colleague Tuma informed me yesterday that she would not be able to attend this public session. The conditions for holding this session have therefore not been met,” said Appellate Chamber Chairman Dragomir Vukoje, adding that the next hearing would “most probably be held in August”.

Indictee Momcilo Mandic, former Minister of Justice of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, also failed to appear in court “for health reasons”. In July 2007 a first-instance verdict was pronounced against Mandic, acquitting him of charges that he committed crimes against civilians and crimes against humanity.

The indictment alleged that Mandic was responsible for the establishment and functioning of penal and correctional facilities in the Sarajevo and Foca regions, in which several hundred people were detained and held in inhumane conditions during the course of the war. The Prosecution contends that on April 5, 1992 he led an attack by Serb forces on the Personnel Training Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.

The Prosecution began presenting its appeal on July 8, when Prosecutor Behaija Krnjic said that he considered that the verdict contained “wrongly and incompletely determined” facts and that there had been “substantive violations of the Criminal Procedure Code”.

The last hearing was interrupted because Judge Tuma did not feel well.