Momcilo Mandic Cleared of all Charges

The first instance Trial Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has passed a verdict clearing Momcilo Mandic of all counts in the indictment, which charged him with war crimes against civilians and crime against humanity.

“The Prosecution has not been able to prove the indictee’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” said Trial Chamber chairman Davorin Jukic.

The indictment, consisting of four counts, was confirmed on 17 July last year and adapted in May 2007. It charged Mandic with responsibility, as the Minister of Justice in the former Serbian Republic of BiH, with responsibility for the establishment and functioning of all correctional facilities in the parts of Sarajevo controlled by Serbian forces, and in Foca in 1992. The indictment alleges that all these institutions had characteristics of detention camps.

The Prosecution has also tried to prove that Mandic led the attack of the Serbian forces on the Staff Education Centre of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in April 1992, when a few persons were beaten up and then taken to detention centers.

Jukic has said that the Chamber has concluded that the attack on Vraca happened on 5 April 1992 and that it “could not be defined as an armed conflict, as claimed by the Prosecution, but rather as a component of an international conflict”.

The Prosecution originally indicated in the indictment that the attack happened on 6 April, but, in May the date was changed to 5 April.

Based on the testimony of Defence witness Alija Delimustafic, former Minister of Internal Affairs of BiH, the Trial Chamber has concluded that all persons present in the centre at the time of the attack were armed and “were not civilians”, which means that Mandic cannot be convicted for crimes against civilians.

The Trial Chamber has characterised the evidence presented by the Prosecution and Prosecutor Behaija Krnjic as “passive reports with no established connection with the indictee”.

“The Prosecution has not presented a joint intention or role of other persons in the crimes and it has not sufficiently dealt with the role of the indictee and other civil authority representatives in order to prove that they were a part of an associated criminal undertaking. We consider that the prosecution has not proved Mandic’s control of the employees in the Correctional Facility in Foca, and we consider that this, logically, also applies to other institutions,” Jukic has pointed out.

To date, Mandic is the highest-ranking official of the former Serbian Republic of BiH against whom a process has been initiated before the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of BiH.

He performed his function in the government of the Serbian Republic at the time when Radovan Karadzic was the head, and he is the only close associate of the Hague fugitive indicted before local courts in BiH so far.

Most of the prosecution witnesses are former detainees in Kula and Planjina kuca detention camps and detention camp in Semizovac. Of the 45 witnesses, 12 claimed that they had seen Mandic during their detention when he “had come to visit the camps”.

Jukic has pointed out that the trial chamber has concluded, on the basis of intercepted telephone conversations between Momcilo Mandic and Ratko Mladic presented by the Prosecution as material evidence, that Mandic “was a representative of civil authorities and that he was subordinate to military authorities”.

The Defence witnesses, including a few former managers of detention camps whose functioning was charged upon Mandic, denied his responsibility saying that military authorities controlled “prisoners of war”.

Jukic says that, on the basis of some parts of the verdict passed by the Tribunal in The Hague against Milorad Krnojelac which were admitted by the trial chamber as per a motion by the prosecution, it has been determined that “Krnojelac was directly responsible to military headquarters, while the Justice Minister was responsible for convicted persons”.

In September 2003 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Milorad Krnojelac to 15 years imprisonment. The verdict alleged that he had been the manager of the Correctional Facility in Foca from April 1992 to August 1993.

A Court expert invited by the trial chamber was not able to confirm the indictee’s responsibility for functioning of the detention camps.

Mandic denied the allegations in the indictment on several occasions, claiming that the whole process against him was politicised.

After the pronouncement of the verdict many people present in the courtroom applauded. Mandic’s family, his wife and sons and his brother Mladjen Mandic were present.

After the pronouncement of the verdict Refik Serdarevic, one of his three attorneys, has said that the Court of BiH “has confirmed that it can regain the trust in independent judiciary in BiH” and that the trial was “correct and objective”.

Defence attorney Slavisa Prodanovic considers that, “apart from legal expertise the court has proven its courage” when rendering the decision.

Both parties have the right to appeal. After the pronouncement of the verdict, the prosecutor was not willing to talk to the media representatives. It is therefore not known if the prosecution will appeal against the verdict of release.

In 2006 Mandic was convicted by a second instance verdict before the Chamber for Organised Crime and Corruption of the Court of BiH to five years imprisonment for abuse of power at the time when he had been director and president of the Managing Board of Privredna banka in Srpsko Sarajevo.

(You can read analisys about Momcilo Mandic trail you can read on http://www.bim.ba/en/72/10/3641/, and archive with all the reports http://www.bim.ba/en/72/10/3641/?tpid=39&tpl=95)