REPORT ON WAR CRIMES TRIALS IN SERBIA Belgrade, May 2019 Contents Introduction and Methodology .................................................................................................................. 7 General findings and socio-political context ......................................................................................... 8 Protracted delays in war crimes trials ................................................................................................... 8 Low visibility of war crimes trials .......................................................................................................... 9 Anonymisation of documents pertaining to war crimes ................................................................ 12 Prosecutorial strategy ............................................................................................................................. 16 OWCP’s inefficiency ................................................................................................................................ 18 Serious delays in the implementation of the National Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes .......................................................................................................................................... 23 Lack of political support for war crimes trials .................................................................................. 25 Consequences of the severe delay in the appointment of a new War Crimes Prosecutor ....... 30 Pending war crime cases in the War Crimes Department of the Higher Court in 3 Belgrade as the court of first instance ..................................................................................................... 33 I. Bratunac Case ....................................................................................................................................... 33 II. Brčko Case ........................................................................................................................................... 42 III. Ćuška Case ......................................................................................................................................... 44 IV. Ključ – Rejzovići Case ...................................................................................................................... 53 V. Lovas Case ............................................................................................................................................ 56 VI. Sanski Most – Lušci Palanka Case ................................................................................................. 66 VII. Srebrenica Case ............................................................................................................................... 69 VIII. Trnje Case ....................................................................................................................................... 81 IX. Bosanska Krupa II Case ................................................................................................................... 92 X. Bosanski Petrovac – Gaj Case .......................................................................................................... 95 Report on war crimes trials in Serbia First-instance judgments ............................................................................................................................. 99 I. Bosanska Krupa Case ........................................................................................................................... 99 II. Ključ-Kamičak Case ..........................................................................................................................105 III. Ključ-Šljivari Case ............................................................................................................................112 First instance proceedings before a court of general jurisdiction ................................................117 I. Grupa Pauk [Spider Group] Case ....................................................................................................117 Appellate proceedings before the War Crimes Department of the Court of Appeal in Belgrade .....................................................................................................................................122 I. Skočić Case ..........................................................................................................................................122 Cases in which plea agreements where concluded ............................................................................131 I. Caparde Case ......................................................................................................................................131 Cases in which criminal proceedings have been discontinued .....................................................134 4 I. Doboj Case ..........................................................................................................................................134 Final judgments in cases before the War Crimes Departments ...................................................139 I. Gradiška Case .....................................................................................................................................139 II. Bosanski Petrovac Case ...................................................................................................................144 III. Ovčara Case .....................................................................................................................................150 Proceedings on requests for recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in war crimes cases .....................................................................................................................................159 I. Novak Đukić – Tuzla’s “Kapija” Case ..............................................................................................159 Report on war crimes trials in Serbia Abbreviations used in the text BIH Bosnia and Herzegovina CC FRY Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Official Gazette of the SFRY, No. 44/76, 36/77, 56/77, 34/84, 37/84, 74/87, 57/89, 3/90, 38/90, 45/90, 54/90 and Official Gazette of FRY, No. 35/92, 37/93 and 24/94) ZKP The Criminal Procedure Code (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 72/2011, 101/2011, 121/2012, 32/2013, 45/2013 and 55/2014) ECHR The European Convention on Human Rights ECtHR The European Court of Human Rights EU The European Union HLC The Humanitarian Law Center ICRC The International Committee of the Red Cross ICTY The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia IHL International humanitarian law JNA The Yugoslav People’s Army KLA The Kosovo Liberation Army Law on War Crimes The Law on Organization and Jurisdiction of State Authorities in 5 Prosecuting Perpetrators of War Crimes (Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, No. 67/2003, 135/2004, 61/2005, 101/2007 and 104/2009, Article 2 and Article 4, para. 1 MUP The Ministry of the Interior OWCP The Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia RPPO The Office of the Republic Public Prosecutor VJ The Yugoslav Army VRS The Army of the Republic of Srpska Report on war crimes trials in Serbia Introduction and Methodology This is the seventh report of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on war crimes trials in Serbia. The HLC has monitored all war crimes trials conducted in the territory of Serbia during 2017 and 2018, a total of 20 trials, conducted by the War Crimes Departments of the Higher Court in Belgrade or the Court of Appeal in Belgrade, including one trial conducted by a court of general jurisdiction. A brief overview of all cases observed, and the HLC’s key findings on each case of interest to the public, are provided in the Report. A significant portion of the war crimes proceedings presented in the Report have been ongoing for a number of years. Therefore the previous annual HLC Reports on war crimes trials may also be consulted for full appreciation of the course of the proceedings and the corresponding findings. The Report also includes a trial for a criminal offence that the competent prosecutor’s office of general jurisdiction did not classify as a war crime, despite all the circumstances of the case indicating otherwise.1 The Report focuses particularly on the work of the War Crimes Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP) and of the courts (in the parts of the proceedings which are open to the public), and analyses the indictments and judgments in each individual case. An analysis of the work of other institutions involved in war crimes prosecution (the War Crimes Investigation Service of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, the Witness Protection Unit, et al.) could not be made within the context of each case because of the lack of publicly available information about their work. The War Crimes Department of the Higher Court in Belgrade handed down first-instance judgments in 7 three cases over the reporting period.2 The War Crimes Department of the Court of Appeal in Belgrade handed down four rulings on appeals against judgments passed by the Higher Court in Belgrade.3 One interim judgment was handed down by a court of general jurisdiction, and was subsequently confirmed by the Court of Appeal.4 The OWCP issued a total of 14 indictments over the reporting period, three in 2017 (against four individuals),5 and 11 in 2018 (against 15 individuals),6 as indicated in the