War Criminals become Citizens without Previous Convictions

Thanks to the legal possibility for the deletion of verdicts, several war-crime convicts will become citizens without previous convictions in a few years and, unless they commit another crime in the meantime, have all the rights as if though they did not commit the crimes determined under the second instance verdicts against them.

While legal experts explain that this represents a measure for rehabilitating convicts, victims consider this fact unbelievable, saying that the actions committed by those people cannot be erased.

Revisions and amendments to criminal laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2010 foresee the possibility for deletion of verdicts. According to those revisions and amendments, it is not necessary to file a request with the Court asking it to render a decision on a deletion.

According to previous legal provisions, only sentences lasting up to one year can be deleted without requests for deletion having to be filed. 

Unless they have committed another crime after having served their sentences, some war-crime convicts have already fulfilled the conditions for having their verdicts deleted from the criminal registry by a competent police station.

In most cases a certificate, proving that the person has never been convicted, is needed when applying for a job, particularly with one of the institutions.

According to the criminal codes, including the state, entity and Brcko District one, a competent police station is obliged to delete a verdict against a person, who, for instance, has served a sentence lasting up to three years, five years after that person was released from prison.

Data contained in the criminal registry is not public. Justice Report has still not received responses from ministries of internal affairs to which we sent requests where we asked them to inform us how many verdicts have already been deleted.

Considering the fact that war crimes have been processed in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the wartime period and the sentences pronounced, one can conclude that, unless they have committed another crime in the meantime, several convicts have already become citizens without previous convictions. 

Decent Citizens

Monika Karan Ilic, who was sentenced, under a second instance verdict earlier this year, for war crimes committed in Brcko, might become a citizen without previous convictions in a few years.

Karan-Ilic, 38, should be released from prison in six months, because the time she spent under custody, from December 2011 onwards, has been calculated towards her sentence. When she turns 43, Karan-Ilic will become a citizen without previous convictions, unless she commits another crime in the meantime.

“This is simply unbelievable. They will become clean, decent citizens…” says Fadil Redzic, President of the Association of Detainees of Brcko District.

Attorney Asim Crnalic considers the deletion of verdicts one of the rehabilitation measures. “A convict, who has served his sentence, gets a possibility to become fully involved in all aspects of society,” Crnalic said, explaining that, under certain conditions, the law foresaw the deletion of verdicts, ranging from the shortest to the longest sentences, excluding long-term imprisonment sentences.

Considering the fact that the revisions and amendments to criminal codes were introduced in 2010, Dalida Burzic of the Sarajevo Cantonal Court explains that they can even be applied to convicts, who fulfilled the conditions for deletion of their verdicts prior to 2010.

Burzic explains that, in theory, even a person sentenced according to the Criminal Code of the former Yugoslavia can get the status of a person without previous convictions.

Souls are not deleted

Several persons, like Alija Osmic, born in 1967, and Albina Terzic, born in 1972, were sentenced to up to three years in prison according to the Criminal Code of the former Yugoslavia.

The individuals, who were sentenced to three years in prison, meet the conditions for deletion of their verdicts five years after they have served their sentences.

For instance, if a person was sentenced to five years in prison, like Milivoje Cirkovic, who was pronounced guilty of war crimes in Srebrenica, the person acquires the right to have his verdict deleted ten years after being released to liberty, unless he/she commits a new crime in the meantime.

Cirkovic was sentenced to five years in prison in 2010 after the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina accepted his guilt admission agreement. He is now 40. He can obtain the status of a person with no previous convictions at the age of 52.

Hatidza Mehmedovic, President of  “The Mothers of Srebrenica” Association, says that, irrespective of the deletion of his verdict, his actions cannot be deleted.

“They can delete it from papers, but they can never delete it from our souls,” Mehmedovic said.