Acquittal Motion for Herceg-Bosna Defendants Declined
The defence teams of six Bosnian Croat officials will have a case to answer after all.
Acquittal Motion for Herceg-Bosna Defendants Declined
The defence teams of six Bosnian Croat officials will have a case to answer after all.
Judges in the war crimes trial of six former Bosnian Croat leaders this week dismissed defence motions for their early acquittal, leaving their respective defence counsels a full set of charges to answer.
The prosecution finished its case against the men last month and, as tribunal rules allow, defence lawyers asked for the dismissal of all charges they considered unproven.
Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic are charged with gross violations of the Geneva conventions and committing crimes against humanity against the Bosniak population during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
It is also alleged they attacked, mistreated and expelled women and children as they sought to establish Herceg-Bosna, a self-proclaimed Croat entity, as a statelet within Bosnia.
In delivering its decision, the trial chamber ruled that enough evidence had been presented to suggest the case might end in a conviction. The defence teams must now challenge the prosecution’s version of events.
Explaining the court’s decision, Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti started with the charge that the men conspired to “permanently remove and ethnically cleanse Bosnian Muslims and other non-Croats who lived in areas on the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina which were claimed to be part of…Herceg Bosna, and to join these areas as part of a ‘Greater Croatia’”.
Judge Antonetti said numerous witnesses had testified that Croatian Defence Council policy “was to implement its plan in a way that would require the removal of Muslims and other non-Croats” from Herceg-Bosna.
He ruled that the trial chamber might conclude that acts of persecution, imprisonment, detention, rape and forcible transfer were part of a plan intended to drive Muslims out of the entity.
Judge Antonetti then addressed the motions of lawyers for Coric and Pusic directly as they had called for their acquittal on all 26 counts of the indictment.
Discussing Coric’s case, he cited reports showing Coric “issued orders to establish prison camps such as Heliodrom … [and] was also involved in other detention facilities and in the transfer of detainees from one unit to another”.
According to the charges, the Herceg-Bosna authorities “established, supported and operated a system of ill-treatment, involving a network of prisons, concentration camps and other detention facilities…to arrest, detain and imprison thousands of Bosnian Muslims”.
Judge Antonetti further drew on evidence given by a former employee at one detention centre. According to this witness, Coric “played a role in the decision to release Muslim detainees and transport them to a third country”.
In calling for his acquittal, Coric’s defence council focused specifically on the charge of rape. But the trial chamber dismissed this motion, citing evidence indicating “that military police members committed rape and other crimes during the summer of 1993”.
“A trial chamber could find that Coric shared the purpose of deporting Muslims… and that he participated in a joint criminal enterprise by using military police for criminal purposes or passively by failing to protect the Muslim population,” said Antonetti.
Turning to the charges against Pusic, the judge again dismissed all motions for acquittal.
“Witnesses say that Pusic was the deputy of Coric and played a major part in overseeing detention facilities,” he said.
The judge referred again to the testimony of the former detention centre employee who said that prisoners were sent to do forced labour on the front lines. The judge recalled the witness’ words that “there never was any reaction to several warnings he had sent regarding how dangerous the work was”.
Having dismissed all grounds for acquittal at this halfway stage in proceedings, the trial chamber granted provisional release to five of the accused. However the prosecution immediately appealed the decision, arguing that the chamber’s dismissal of all motions for acquittal had increased the risk that the accused may abscond.
Subject to the appeal, Prlic, Stojic, Praljak, Petkovic and Coric were given liberty to return to Croatia until the trial recommences on May 4. Pusic’s request for provisional release has not yet been considered as he has not attended court recently for health reasons. The Croatian government has pledged to provide the required level of security if provisional release is granted.
Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
The prosecution finished its case against the men last month and, as tribunal rules allow, defence lawyers asked for the dismissal of all charges they considered unproven.
Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic are charged with gross violations of the Geneva conventions and committing crimes against humanity against the Bosniak population during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
It is also alleged they attacked, mistreated and expelled women and children as they sought to establish Herceg-Bosna, a self-proclaimed Croat entity, as a statelet within Bosnia.
In delivering its decision, the trial chamber ruled that enough evidence had been presented to suggest the case might end in a conviction. The defence teams must now challenge the prosecution’s version of events.
Explaining the court’s decision, Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti started with the charge that the men conspired to “permanently remove and ethnically cleanse Bosnian Muslims and other non-Croats who lived in areas on the territory of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina which were claimed to be part of…Herceg Bosna, and to join these areas as part of a ‘Greater Croatia’”.
Judge Antonetti said numerous witnesses had testified that Croatian Defence Council policy “was to implement its plan in a way that would require the removal of Muslims and other non-Croats” from Herceg-Bosna.
He ruled that the trial chamber might conclude that acts of persecution, imprisonment, detention, rape and forcible transfer were part of a plan intended to drive Muslims out of the entity.
Judge Antonetti then addressed the motions of lawyers for Coric and Pusic directly as they had called for their acquittal on all 26 counts of the indictment.
Discussing Coric’s case, he cited reports showing Coric “issued orders to establish prison camps such as Heliodrom … [and] was also involved in other detention facilities and in the transfer of detainees from one unit to another”.
According to the charges, the Herceg-Bosna authorities “established, supported and operated a system of ill-treatment, involving a network of prisons, concentration camps and other detention facilities…to arrest, detain and imprison thousands of Bosnian Muslims”.
Judge Antonetti further drew on evidence given by a former employee at one detention centre. According to this witness, Coric “played a role in the decision to release Muslim detainees and transport them to a third country”.
In calling for his acquittal, Coric’s defence council focused specifically on the charge of rape. But the trial chamber dismissed this motion, citing evidence indicating “that military police members committed rape and other crimes during the summer of 1993”.
“A trial chamber could find that Coric shared the purpose of deporting Muslims… and that he participated in a joint criminal enterprise by using military police for criminal purposes or passively by failing to protect the Muslim population,” said Antonetti.
Turning to the charges against Pusic, the judge again dismissed all motions for acquittal.
“Witnesses say that Pusic was the deputy of Coric and played a major part in overseeing detention facilities,” he said.
The judge referred again to the testimony of the former detention centre employee who said that prisoners were sent to do forced labour on the front lines. The judge recalled the witness’ words that “there never was any reaction to several warnings he had sent regarding how dangerous the work was”.
Having dismissed all grounds for acquittal at this halfway stage in proceedings, the trial chamber granted provisional release to five of the accused. However the prosecution immediately appealed the decision, arguing that the chamber’s dismissal of all motions for acquittal had increased the risk that the accused may abscond.
Subject to the appeal, Prlic, Stojic, Praljak, Petkovic and Coric were given liberty to return to Croatia until the trial recommences on May 4. Pusic’s request for provisional release has not yet been considered as he has not attended court recently for health reasons. The Croatian government has pledged to provide the required level of security if provisional release is granted.
Simon Jennings is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
