ICTY: Zupljanin to arrive in The Hague next week

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, indictee Stojan Zupljanin will be extradited to The Hague during next week, because the legal preconditions for his extradition cannot be fulfilled earlier.

Ivana Ramic, spokeswoman of the District Court in Belgrade, told Justice Report that, in the course of the day on June 13, Zupljanin will receive a copy of the indictment, filed by the Hague Prosecution, charging him with war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Acting on an international warrant, issued nine years ago, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia arrested Zupljanin in an apartment in Pancevo, Serbia, on June 11 this year.

The ICTY indictee is charged with crimes against humanity, violation of laws and practices of warfare and planning persecution, “which escalated into genocide” on the territory of Bosnian Krajina.

Zupljanin is charged, on the basis of his personal and command responsibility, with the crimes committed against Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats on the territory of Kotor-Varos, Banja Luka, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Kljuc and Bosanski Novi.

After Zupljanin has seen the indictment and indicates whether he has understood it, the District Court in Belgrade will decide whether “the conditions have been met to extradite him.”

As per the Law on Cooperation with the ICTY, the indictee and his Defence attorney can appeal the decision within the next three days. If they decide to appeal, the Appellate Chamber of the District Court in Belgrade will render a new, legally-binding, decision, which can be followed by the extradition.

After having been arrested and brought to the District Court in Belgrade, Zupljanin said that his name was Branislav Vukadin, as stated in the personal documents he had with him. The documents were issued in Backa Palanka. Following a DNA analysis, it was determined that the arrested person was
indeed ICTY indictee Zupljanin.