Milko Mucibabic Dies

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced that Milko Mucibabic died in the General Hospital in Nevesinje, where he was receiving medical treatment.

In March 2009, a first instance verdict was pronounced against Mucibabic, sentencing him to five years and three months in prison for crimes committed in Nevesinje during the course of 1992. Under the same verdict Krsto Savic was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

“On the basis of evidence we have seen, the Court has determined that Mucibabic carried out other people’s orders and did not demonstrate any discriminatory intentions. The Court has further determined that the indictees were aware of the crimes and the fact that they were part of an attack against the non-Serb population,” the first instance verdict says.

The first instance verdict was revoked in June 2010. The Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina ordered a retrial, which began in November 2010.

In late December 2010, the Appellate Chamber rendered a decision, on the basis of a proposal made by Savic’s Defence, to separate the case against Milko Mucibabic from the case against Savic, because the second indictee had been hospitalized.

“The Chamber recognised the fact that Krsto Savic is in custody as another important reason. The duration of the custody has to be reduced to the minimal necessary period of time.

“In this concrete case it is uncertain when indictee Milko Mucibabic will be released from hospital and when his attendance and participation at the trial held before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be ensured,” the State Court said in its decision.

Savic, former Chief of the Safety Services Center in Trebinje, which also covered public safety stations in Gacko, Bileca, Nevesinje and Kalinovikc, is charged with having participated in a joint criminal enterprise and crimes committed in those municipalities in 1992.