Verdict against Klickovic and Drljaca on April 29

“Given that there is no evidence about the existence of a plan and the indictees’ intention to implement the plan, I think that the Court has no other option but to release the indictees,” said Milan Trbojevic, Defence attorney of indictee Drljaca, who presented closing statements for both indictees at this hearing.
As he said, Trbojevic disagreed with the State Prosecution’s allegations, charging Klickovic and Drljaca with a joint criminal enterprise. “We oppose the use of term ‘joint criminal enterprise’, which is neither mentioned in the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federated Republic of Yugoslavia, SFRJ, nor the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he said.
Under a first instance verdict pronounced in November 2010, Klickovic and Drljaca were acquitted of the charges that they participated in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at dividing the Bosanska Krupa municipality and creating territories where Serbs would be the absolute majority. In May 2012 the Appellate Chamber revoked the first instance verdict, under which Klickovic and Drljaca were acquitted, and ordered a retrial.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina alleges that Klickovic was President of the wartime Presidency and Commander of the Crisis Committee of the Serbian municipality of Bosanska Krupa, while Drljaca was Chairman of a Temporary Court Martial’s Chamber in Jasenica. The Defence said that the first instance verdict of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina correctly determined that there was “no participation of the indictees” in the attack on Bosanska Krupa, as alleged under the indictment. “The first instance verdict does not contain any positive attention towards the Defence’s allegations, but it had to contain a conclusion that there was no attack and, particularly so, no attack in which the indictees participated,” attorney Trbojevic said. He pointed out that the indictees would have been sentenced a long time ago had there been evidence. He mentioned that several indictments had been filed over the past two decades, charging Klickovic with the events in Bosanska Krupa.
Trbojevic reminded the Court that the Serb municipality of Bosanska Krupa was established in the area, where many Serbs and few Muslims lived, so there was no need to force those people to leave. “The Prosecutor is saying that it does not matter who initiated the attack and that the consequences were important. Indeed, consequences are important, but it is also important to note who the attacker was. The Prosecutor ignores the existence of detained Serbs in Cazin and other places, Serb victims… The indictment ignores the activities conducted by the other conflicting side,” he said. At the beginning of the hearing Dusko Tomic, Defence attorney of indictee Klickovic, briefly addressed the Appellate Chamber, saying that the indictee saved his neighbours and that there was no evidence on the basis of which he could be sentenced. Klickovic and Drljaca did not present their closing statements, telling the Court that they stuck to their statements presented at the end of the first instance trial.