Verdict against Ivanovic Due on Thursday

The Appellate Chamber will pronounce this verdict, because the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH, quashed a second instance verdict, under which Ivanovic was sentenced to 24 years, and ordered the Court of BiH to pronounce a new verdict, applying the Criminal Code of the former Yugoslavia, which was in force when the crime was committed and was more favourable for the perpetrator.
 
Considering the fact that the verdict was quashed, the proceeding was renewed before the Appellate Chamber. Presenting its closing statement, the Prosecution of BiH called on the Court to pronounce a maximal sentence of 20 years against Ivanovic, while the Defence proposed that he be sentenced to 10 years in prison.
 
Prosecutor Dubravko Campara said that 20-year imprisonment sentence would be the only adequate sentence in this case.
 
“There are no mitigating circumstances in Ivanovic’s case, except for the fact that he was young,” Campara said.
 
Petko Pavlovic, Defence attorney of indictee Ivanovic, said that Ivanovic should not be sentenced to more than ten years in prison.
 
“I consider that the Appellate Chamber should consider, in an adequate manner, the indictee’s behavior during the trial, his extremely good conduct in the Detention Unit of the Court of BiH and Penal and Correctional Facility in Foca (…) as well as the fact that he had not been sentenced before and that he was young,” Pavlovic said.
 
In June 2013 Ivanovic was sentenced, according to the Criminal Code of BiH, to 24 years in prison for having participated in the capture of Bosniak men and escorting them to a hangar in Kravica village, where about 1,000 of the captives were killed.
 
In May this year the Court of BiH terminated the execution of the sentence against Zeljko Ivanovic after the Constitutional Court of BiH had quashed the verdict.