ICTY: Krajisnik’s Sentence Reduced by Seven Years

The Appellate Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, partially upheld the first-instance verdict appeals filed by the indictee, Momcilo Krajisnik, and Amicus Curiae and reduced the sentence from 27 to 20 years’ imprisonment.

By the same decision the Prosecution’s appeal was fully dismissed.

In September 2006 the Trial Chamber found Krajisnik, former President of the Republika Srpska Assembly, guilty of crimes against humanity and participation in a joint criminal enterprise, as well as persecution, extermination, murder and deportation of non-Serb civilians during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

All parties appealed the first-instance verdict.

The Appeals Chamber accepted parts of the Amicus Curiae’s appeal, in which it was claimed that the Trial Chamber had failed to specify which of the local politicians, and military and police commanders were members of the joint criminal enterprise. Thus, it could not “beyond reasonable doubt” conclude that a common objective between them and Krajisnik existed.

The first-instance verdict determined that Krajisnik “shared the intent” to commit deportation, forcible transfer and persecution from the beginning of the joint criminal enterprise.

However, the Appeals Chamber considers that the first-instance verdict failed to identify when the expanded crimes of murder, extermination and persecution became part of the common goal of the joint criminal enterprise. It therefore dismissed these allegations contained in the first-instance verdict.

“The Trial Chamber failed to determine in which cases the murders were committed as part of the joint criminal enterprise, in which case they could be charged upon Momcilo Krajisnik. The Appeals Chamber cannot determine in which cases the joint criminal enterprise also encompassed the expanded crimes or how those crimes were charged upon the indictee,” the second-instance verdict reads.

The Appeals Chamber stated that it was “not in the best interest of justice” to conduct a retrial, adding that “the majority of convictions of Krajisnik were overturned” by the second-instance verdict.

“The convictions for persecution, deportation and forcible transfer have been confirmed. The gravity of these crimes requires a severe sentence,” Judge Fausto Pocar said, adding that the Appeals Chamber had therefore pronounced “a proportionate sentence”.

The time Krajisnik has already spent in detention since his arrest by SFOR forces in April 2000 will be calculated towards the 20-year sentence.

Former ICTY Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said at the time of his arrest that it was “an extremely significant event”. Former US Envoy for the Balkans, Richard Holbrooke said it was “one of the most important events that has happened in the Balkans” since the end of the war.

In 1995 Momcilo Krajisnik led the Bosnian Serb delegation at the signing of the Dayton Peace Accord. In the first post-war elections, conducted in 1996, Krajisnik was elected as the Serb member of the Bosnian Presidency. He performed this function until 1998.