Bosna i Hercegovina Босна и Херцеговина Sud Bosne i Hercegovine Суд Босне и Херцеговине Case Number: S1 1 K 003420 10 Kri (X-KR-09/684) Date: Delivered on: 1 June 2012 Written copy issued on: 12 October 2012 Before the Panel composed of: Judge Minka Kreho, President Judge Željka Marenić Judge Ljubomir Kitić CASE OF PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA v. Ratko Dronjak VERDICT Prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Džemila Begović Defense Counsel for the Accused: Slobodan Perić, Attorney from Banja Luka Marinko Brkić, Attorney from Banja Luka Record-taker Emil Pinkas, Legal Advisor-Assistant Sud Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, ul. Kraljice Jelene br. 88 Telefon: 033 707 100, 707 596; Fax: 033 707 225 Number: S1 1 K 003420 10 KrI (Ref. No. X-KR-09/684) Sarajevo, 1 June 2012 IN THE NAME OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA! The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, sitting on the Panel composed of Judge Minka Kreho, as the President, and Judge Željka Marenić and Judge Ljubomir Kitić, as members, with the participation of Legal Advisor-Assistant Emil Pinkas, as the record- taker, in the criminal case conducted against the Accused Ratko Dronjak, for the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity, in violation of Article 172(1)(h), as read with Sub-Paragraphs (a), (f), (i) and (k), and the criminal offense of War Crimes against Civilians, in violation of Article 173(1)(c) of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CC of B-H), as read with Article 180(1) and Article 29 of the CC of B-H, based on the Amended Indictment issued by the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. T 20 0 KT RZ 0000150 05 of 22 March 2012, following a public main trial from which the public was partially excluded, in the presence of the Accused Ratko Dronjak and his Defense Counsel, Attorney Slobodan Perić, and Džemila Begović, Prosecutor for the Prosecutor's Office of B-H, on 1 June 2012 rendered and publicly announced the following: V E R D I C T The Accused RATKO DRONJAK, son of Vojislav, born on 6 April 1962 in Drvar, ethnic …, citizen of …, Personal Identification Number …, secondary school qualifications, mechanical technician, with permanent residence at …, residence registered in CIPS is …, married, with two children, completed military service in Ohrid in 1983/1984, holds a rank of Sergeant 1st Class, in custody pursuant to the Decision of the Court of B-H No. X-KRN-09/684 since 22 January 2010; HAS BEEN FOUND GUILTY Of the following: 2 Sud Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, ul. Kraljice Jelene br. 88 Telefon: 033 707 100, 707 596; Fax: 033 707 225 In the period from May 1992 until the end of 1995, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the war and within a widespread and systematic attack carried out by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), police and paramilitary formations against the civilians in the territory of the Autonomous Region of Krajina (ARK), established by the Decision of the Assembly of the Serb People in 1991, which was to be comprised of 19 municipalities, including Drvar, Kulen Vakuf, Bosanski Petrovac, Ključ, Sanski Most, Kupres, and Bosanska Krupa, with a view to persecute Muslims, Croats and other non-Serb population in the territory of the ARK, which attack lasted from May 1992 to May 1993, and being aware of the attack, Ratko Dronjak, in the period from May 1992 at least until mid-1995, as a de iure and a de facto commander of the prison in the Slavko Rodić Elementary School in Drvar and the detention camp in the old Elementary School in the village of Kamenica (the Kamenica camp) in Drvar, together with other guards, including Dragan Rodić a.k.a. Šaula, and under the control of the military security members led by the chief who was a security officer, and the Military Police of the 2nd Krajina Corps and their commanders, participating in a Joint Criminal Enterprise, being fully aware of the common purpose – the widespread and systematic attack against the civilians, knowingly sharing the agreed criminal intent, he aided and abetted the implementation of the persecution plan, given that, as a superior to and a person responsible for the work of guards, he had effective control over the work and conduct of all guards and other persons who were engaged in the camp and all outsiders who would come to the camp, and supervised and had complete control of the living conditions, the lives and limbs of the detained civilians and prisoners of war, in as much as he participated in receiving the unlawfully arrested civilians at the Slavko Rodić Elementary School and the Kamenica camp, and personally participated in various forms of physical and mental violence against the detained Bosnian Muslims and Croats, in the conditions that were cruel and degrading, keeping the detainees without basic necessities such as food, potable water, medicines, and health care, in inadequate hygienic conditions and overcrowded rooms, subjecting them to frequent beatings, torture, humiliation and mental abuse, keeping them in constant fear for their 3 Sud Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, ul. Kraljice Jelene br. 88 Telefon: 033 707 100, 707 596; Fax: 033 707 225 lives, whereby he instigated and aided in the persecution of the non-Serb civilian population on political, national, ethnic and religious grounds, by torture, beating, killing, inhuman treatment, inflicting injuries to body and physical health, subjecting them to forced labor and enforced disappearance, and, in violation of Articles 68, 69, 72 and 75 of the Additional Protocol I and Articles 4 and 5 of the Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions dated 12 August 1949, he participated in and supported various forms of physical and mental violence against members of the Army of BiH and the HVO [Croat Defense Council], aided, abetted, and incited the cruel and degrading detention conditions, by creating the atmosphere of terror and keeping the prisoners without basic necessities such as food, potable water, medicines, health care, in inadequate hygienic conditions and overcrowded rooms, subjecting them to frequent interrogations, beatings, torture, humiliation and mental abuse, keeping them in constant fear for their lives, whereby he instigated and aided in the persecution by torture, beating, killing, inhuman treatment, inflicting injuries on the body and physical health, whereby he contributed to and furthered the functioning of the camp system of abuse of prisoners of war; therefore, with the intent of achieving the common purpose, he contributed to the functioning of the system of abuse by participating in the establishment of the system of abuse, with the common purpose to commit crimes against the detained civilians and soldiers, which also included maintaining the system of abuse of detainees, committed by him as well as the subordinated guards, the other camp staff, and those who came to the camp together with him or with his approval, in the manner as follows: I. In the period from May 1992 until at least August 1992, he participated in establishing and maintaining the system of abuse in the Slavko Rodić Elementary School in Drvar, where he received the unlawfully arrested Bosnian Muslim and Croat civilians from the areas of Kulen Vakuf, Ključ, Sanski Most, Kupres and other ARK areas, and detained them on inadequate school premises where: 4 Sud Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, ul. Kraljice Jelene br. 88 Telefon: 033 707 100, 707 596; Fax: 033 707 225 1. guards, military police officers and other soldiers who had access there with the camp commander’s approval, entered the premises where the civilians were detained, beat them up by jointly kicking and beating them with hands and various instruments, took them out for interrogations where they would continue with the beating, with Drago Žulj, professor Rasim Zulić and at least four other unidentified civilians having died as a result of that physical abuse, whereupon Ratko Dronjak, together with the guards, loaded their dead bodies onto a van and transported them to an unidentified location; II. In the period from August 1992 until at least mid-1995, he participated in establishing and maintaining the system of abuse in the Kamenica camp, where he received and detained the civilians who had been unlawfully deprived of liberty in an organized way from the areas of Kulen Vakuf, Ključ, Sanski Most, Kupres, Bosanski Petrovac, Bosanska Krupa and other ARK areas, organized their detention on inadequate premises of the old school building, where they were starved, exposed to frequent beating and physical abuse, which left lasting consequences on the majority of the prisoners, including the following: 1. From mid-August until October 1992 at least, following days-long beating conducted in different periods of time, the guards took out civilians Jasmin Subašić and Fuad Subašić, who were brothers, Rufad Crnolić, Kalmin Kalić, Šaćir Omanović, and Enver Ćehić, under the pretext that they were taking them to a hospital or for an exchange, took them to an unknown direction, killed them and threw their bodies into the so-called Gigića Jama [Gigić’s pit; translator's note], also known as Golubnjača, in the area of Drvar, in which their bodies were later discovered and identified; 2. In the second half of 1992, immediately upon arriving in the Kamenica camp, in front of the camp entrance, the guards instantly separated civilians Fehim Kadić, Kemal Šepić, Ferid Velagić and Nusret Malkoč from the other camp inmates and detained them in an inadequate basement room within the camp, known as “the solitary,” where they were beaten up, constantly abused both 5 Sud Bosne i Hercegovine, Sarajevo, ul. Kraljice Jelene br.