Gravest Crimes Often Fail to Be Proved
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The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced 23 and acquitted 15 people of charges for war crimes under second instance verdicts. In the case of five indictees the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina failed to prove the gravest charges, like genocide or sexual abuse.
Albina Terzic, former member of military police with the Croatian Defence Council, HVO, was acquitted of charges for having participated in forcing prisoners to have sexual intercourse with a mentally ill detainee in a school building in Odzak. She was sentenced to three years in prison for having hit prisoners.
The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina was not able to prove the existence of a genocidal intention in the case of four former members of the Tenth Reconnaissance Squad with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, during a mass execution of Srebrenica residents on Branjevo farm, near Zvornik in July 1995.
Although Franc Kos, Stanko Kojic, Vlastimir Golijan and Zoran Goronja did not deny having participated in the murders, the existence of a genocidal intention was the only disputable issue at that trial. The indictees were acquitted of the genocide charges and sentenced, under a second instance verdict, to a total of 112 years in prison for crimes against humanity.
When comparing second instance verdicts pronounced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina with indictments, one can conclude that the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has been partially successful in proving the gravest of crimes.
Comparing first instance verdicts pronounced by the State Court in 2013 with indictments indicates that the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina has achieved much better results. The Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina managed to prove the allegations contained in an indictment against ten people, who were then sentenced to a total of 139 years in prison for war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Prosecution failed to prove the charges against three indictees, so they were acquitted of all charges. Also, it proved that one person committed unlawful detention of civilians, but it was not able to prove that the mentioned person participated in murders. The parties have the right to file appeals against those verdicts with the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As far as the verdicts are concerned, we are mainly satisfied, because the Special War Crimes Section has achieved a rather high percentage of verdicts of conviction, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced.
Legal expert Vehid Sehic says that prosecutors offices bear the burden of proving crimes and that they are responsible for ensuring good quality of investigations to the best extent possible.
He said that the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina was probably aware of the fact that they could further improve the quality of indictments and that the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina could return indictments in order to be amended, in case it noticed deficiencies in them.
Therefore, both of those institutions bear the responsibility, he said.
Dusko Tomic, an attorney representing war-crimes indictees before the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, says that some prosecutors should bear the consequences, because they have many failed cases.
This goes to show that either they are untalented or the Defence teams facing them are very strong, Tomic considers.
During the last year the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina pronounced a maximum imprisonment sentence against Veselin Vlahovic, known as Batko.
The indictment against Vlahovic is one of the most comprehensive ones filed by the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina since its establishment. Under the first instance verdict, Vlahovic was sentenced to 45 years in prison for having committed several murders, rape, beating and other crimes.
On the other hand, the Prosecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina failed to prove guilt in some other cases in which several persons were indicted.
In some cases indictees were held in custody during the investigation and trial. In case the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina acquits them of charges under a second instance verdict, they may file suits, requesting compensation of damage for their stay in detention. Data available to BIRN indicates that more than 387,000 Marks have already been paid as compensation to ten former indictees.
