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The president of the Mechanism for International Tribunals, Theodor Meron, has denied a release request from Goran Jelisic, who is serving a 40-year sentence for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war.
Meron said in his decision, which was made public on Friday, that Jelisic will have served two-thirds of his sentence, which is a precondition for considering his request for early release, in October 2020.
Jelisic filed the early release request on the basis of a decision by a court in Italy, where he is in prison, which reduced his sentence from 40 to 30 years.
Meron has conditionally granted the reduction of Jelisic’s sentence by 1,440 days, but said that this does not have to be counted towards the two-thirds of the served sentence.
Meron said the only verdict against Jelisic that was authoritative was the one pronounced by the Hague Tribunal.
He also cited the gravity of Jelisic’s crimes and noted that he admitted before the Tribunal having called himself “a Serbian Adolf Hitler whose motivation and goal was to kill Muslims”.
In 1992, Jelisic was a senior guard at the Luka detention camp in the Bosnian town of Brcko, where hundreds of Bosniaks and Croats were held prisoner.
He admitted at his trial that he was guilty of a series of murders and inhumane acts in Brcko.
The verdict noted Jelisic’s “enthusiasm for committing the crimes, the inhumanity of the crimes and the dangerous nature evidenced by behaviour”.
He was also originally charged with genocide, but was not found guilty.
He has been serving his sentence in Italy since 2003.
Meron’s decision revealed that Jelisic has worked at a tailor’s shop and coffee machine factory within the Italian prison over the past years.
The Italian prison authorities described him as a “shy” and “reserved” person, and mentioned that he had demonstrated “a considerable artistic sensibility” while taking a photography course.
