Biweekly Report on War Crime Trials / 31 October 2013

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Biweekly Report on War Crime Trials / 31 October 2013

The charges against Josip Boljkovac for execution of civilians in the mid-1945 upheld by the Indictment Court / The 93-year-old Boljkovac was charged in his capacity as the Chief of the Committee of the People's Security  Department (OZNA) for the Town of Karlovac and the Karlovac County according to which he was held responsible  for the arrests and executions of the civilians suspected of collaboration with Ustasha authorities.

One more indictment against the ex-commander of the military barracks in Osijek / On 15 October 2013, the Osijek County State Attorney's Office brought an indictment against Boro Ivanović also  known as Horse [konj] for war crimes against civilians and prisoners of war.

He was charged that in his capacity as commander of the 12th Proletarian Mechanized Brigade of JNA and  commander to subordinate members of the local territorial defences and volunteers from Serbia, in the period from 7  July to December 1991, he ordered non-selective artillery and mortar attacks on Tordinci, Ćelije, Orlovnjak,  Ernestinovo, Laslovo, Antunovac and Palača, including their occupation.

Although he knew that his subordinates  were unauthorisedly apprehending, abusing and killing civilians, he failed to take any action to prevent such activities  and punish the perpetrators. Boro Ivanović also known as Horse is still not available to Croatian judiciary.

Continuing protests because of the prosecution for war crimes of Croatian Homeland war veterans / Violent removal of Latin-Cyrillic signs in Vukovar, which continued throughout Croatia, has led to a revival of inter- ethnic mistrust and encouraged actions which do not contribute to the prosecution of all perpetrators of war crimes. 

The association Women in the Homeland War – Zadar, on 17 October 2013 before the Split County Court, organized a protest which gathered its twenty or so members -  mostly wives and family members of persons prosecuted for war crimes. They requested "a review of all trials against  Homeland war veterans who have been convicted, indicted or under suspicion" for war crimes.

Former JNA officer, earlier convicted in his absence, has been arrested / Slobodan Dotlić was arrested at the border crossing between Croatia and Hungary on 18 October 2013. He had been  convicted earlier to 15 years in prison for war crime against civilians which he committed by shelling Gospić.

A person accused of the war crime committed in Croatia apprehended in Germany / According to the information conveyed by many internet media portals, during the routine control of a bus, on 19  October 2013, near the town of Passau at the German-Austrian border, German police apprehended a citizen of  Serbia.

The stated person had been listed among those searched for based on the international APB, and the person  had been charged of abusing several prisoners of war on the territory of the Republic of Croatia in 1991.

News from the ICTY

a) Implications of the Harhoff issue / On 07 October 2013, by majority vote and with a dissenting opinion by the judge Liu, the Commission appointed by  the ICTY's Vice-President dismissed the request made by the ICTY's Office of the Prosecutor for the renewed  revision of the decision dated on 28 August 2013 according to which the motion of the accused Vojislav Šešelj for  exclusion of the judge Frederik Harhoff from Šešelj's case had been upheld. 

b) Prlić et al. case – the motion upheld confirming that Slobodan Praljak is able to fully cover the cost of his  defence counsel; the Appeal Chamber to render its judgment on the first-instance judgment not earlier than year 2017 / The Appeal proceedings in the case against Prlić et al. will be finalised in the mid-2017 – this information may be  grasped from the ICTY President Theodor Meron's address to the United Nations General Assembly held on 14  October 2013 during the presentation of the Annual Report.

In the attachment below, there is the electronic version of the report.

Documenta - Centre for Dealing with the Past

Dvotjedni izvještaj / 31. listopada 2013.

Biweekly Report on War Crime Trials / 31 October 2013

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