Appeals Based on Incorrect Application of Law Shorten Verdicts, Release Convicts

After the verdicts were repealed, more than 15 convicts have been released.

In these cases, the Bosnian state court resentenced the defendants by applying the more lenient criminal code of the former Yugoslavia instead of the Bosnian criminal code.

The convicts affected by these decisions received shorter sentences, lowered by a total of 139 years in prison.

These cases were given new verdicts after the ECHR ruled on which criminal code should be used.

In two cases, the ECHR ruled that the Bosnian state court incorrectly applied the criminal code of Bosnia and Herzegovina instead of the more lenient Yugoslav code. After these decisions, the Bosnian constitutional court repealed an additional 23 verdicts by 2015.

Abduladhim Maktouf, who was sentenced to five years in prison for war crimes in Travnik under the Bosnian criminal code, was one of the two convicts who appealed to the ECHR. He received a sentence reduced by two years.

Goran Damjanovic, the other ECHR appellant, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison after the initial 12 year sentence was repealed. Damjanovic was found guilty of war crimes in Bojnik near Sarajevo. His brother, Zoran Damjanovic, who was originally sentenced to ten years in prison had his sentence reduced to six years after the verdict was repealed.

Fleeing Upon Release

Novak Djukic, the only person to have ever been convicted of the Kapija massacre in Tuzla, used his release from prison to flee to Serbia. He was resentenced to 20 years in prison, but is inaccessible to the Bosnian authorities as Serbia does not extradite its nationals for war crimes. There is currently a red international warrant out for his arrest.

The only person convicted in Bosnia and Herzegovina for the Srebrenica genocide, Milorad Trbic, was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison as well – the maximum under the Yugoslav code. He received a sentence ten years shorter than the original verdict, which called for 30 years in prison.

Zeljko Ivanovic’s original 24 year prison sentence for assisting in the Srebrenica genocide was reduced to 20 years in prison. Aleksandar Radovanovic and Brano Dzinic received the maximum punishment under the Yugoslav code, after their Srebrenica genocide verdicts were reduced by 12 years respectively.

Milenko Trifunovic, a former member of the Second Department of the Sekovici Bosnian Serb special police unit, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, after his original verdict was reduced by 13 years. Branislav Medan and Petar Mitrovic were originally sentenced to 28 years in prison for crimes in Srebrenica, but their verdicts were reduced by eight years respectively.

Mirko Pekez, the son of Spiro Pekez, was resentenced to 10 years in prison for crimes in Jajce after his original 14 year verdict was repealed, while Mirko Pekez, the son of Mile Pekez, had his sentence reduced to 11 years after his 20 year verdict was repealed.

Milorad Savic, another convict from the same case regarding Jajce, received a verdict of 15 years in prison under the Yugoslav code – the original verdict stood at 21 years in prison.

Sefik Alic, who was sentenced for war crimes in Krajina was sentenced to eight years in prison, two years less than the original verdict, while Suad Kapic received a five year reduction on his sentence for war crimes in Sanski Most after being sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Shortened Sentences

Ante Kovac was sentenced to eight years in prison under the old Yugoslav code for war crimes in Vitez, and had his sentence reduced by one year. Miodrag Markovic, who was sentenced to six years in prison for crimes in Doboj, also had his sentence reduced by one year.

Zrinko Pincic was sentenced to six years in prison for crimes in Konjic upon appeal, a sentence three years shorter than the original verdict. Ratko Dronjak’s sentence was reduced by three years upon appeal, after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for crimes in Drvar.

Nikola Andrun was sentenced to 14 years in prison for crimes in Capljina, four years less than the original verdict, while Eso Macic was sentenced to 11 years in prison, two years less than than the original verdict.

Apart from cases that have already been closed, there’s a possibility that other convicts will also receive shortened sentences. However, the Bosnian state court no longer releases convicts during the resentencing period.

During the very first trials handling resentencing, lawyers initiated appeals at the Bosnian state court on the basis of the wrong application of criminal codes. They said the code was being used retroactively and that it was harsher on the defendants.

The Bosnian criminal code was introduced to Bosnia and Herzegovina by the High Representative, after which the state parliament adopted it in 2003.

The former Yugoslav code does not include crimes against humanity as a criminal act, and the maximum punishment for genocide is 20 years in prison. Under the Bosnian criminal code, genocide is punishable to up to 45 years in prison.

Lawyer Miodrag Stojanovic explains that this puts defendants in an unfair position, since they can get up to 45 years in prison for crimes against humanity.

“We colloquially call crimes against humanity ‘small genocide.’ Crimes against humanity constitute killings, persecution, ethnic cleansing, abuse, torture and other inhumane acts. Genocide includes all those acts, but there’s a difference, there’s a special intent to destroy the entire population of one ethnic, religious or national group through those acts,” Stojanovic said.