/Public Information/Press Releases

• Financial Reparations/Reparations/Press Releases
• 08.04.2016.

The first judgment on the responsibility of the state for the crimes in Kosovo: Compensation to families of victims of the crime in Podujevo

The First Basic Court in Belgrade delivered the judgment obliging the Republic of Serbia to pay compensation in the total amount of 25.9 million dinars to 24 closest relatives of fourteen women and children who were killed in front of their own houses in Podujevo in March 1999 by members of the Ministry of Interior unit “Scorpions”. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), which represents the families of victims, considers the court made the right decision after a nine-year proceeding adding that in the second instance proceeding, due to the nature of the case, the court must compare the amount of compensation to standards of the European Court of Human Rights in similar cases.

• Press Releases/ICTY trials and before the courts in the other post-Yugoslav states/War crime trials
• 01.04.2016.

ICTY Trial Chamber Judgment in Šešelj Case: In Time of War, Laws Fall Silent

On March 31^st, 2016, the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) delivered its  first instance judgment acquitting the President of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), Vojislav Šešelj, of criminal responsibility on all counts of the indictment, with the dissenting opinion of one member of the Trial Chamber expressing criticism of the judgement in harsh tones. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) holds that the acquittal is based on findings which are in contradiction to the practice of the ICTY, as well as on an unsustainable reinterpretation of events which occurred during the wars, which is offensive to the victims.

• Press Releases
• 28.03.2016.

Florence Hartmann jailed for struggling for truth

The former spokeswoman of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Florence Hartman, was arrested on Thursday, 24 March, outside the ICTY building and taken to serve a seven-day jail term. Hartmann was arrested by ICTY security officers on orders of the chamber that rendered a final judgment against her. Civil society representatives from the region of the former Yugoslavia hereby voice their support for Florence Hartmann and her uncompromising struggle for truth.

• Press Releases
• 27.03.2016.

Passive Position of Institutions Represents Direct Contribution to the Lynching of Jelena Milić

Jelena Milić, Director of the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Studies, has been exposed to an organized lynching on social networks during the past two months, which included serious insults and death threats addressed to her and her family, because of her public engagement. The threats and assaults culminated with the marking of the anniversary of the NATO bombing on March 24^th, 2016, when she called on the institutions of Serbia to stop manipulating the casualties of the bombing.

• Press Releases
• 26.02.2016.

Press Statement On the Occasion of Marking the 23rd Anniversary of the Crime in Štrpci

On Saturday, February 27^th, 2016, it will be 23 years since the commission of the crime in Štrpci, when members of the Republic of Srpska Army took 20 passengers, who were civilians and non-Serbs, from the train travelling from Belgrade to Bar at the Štrpci Railway Station, and subsequently killed them. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), Women in Black and the Sandžak Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms take this opportunity to remind the public that the victims’ families are still waiting for judicial justice in Serbia and the recognition of the status of family members of civilian victims of war.

• Press Releases/War crime trials/War crime trials in Serbia
• 18.02.2016.

Judgment in “Cobras” Case Delivered

The Higher Court in Niš delivered a judgment on February 17^th, 2016 finding the accused Shyqer Maloku, Xhafer Gashi, Demush Gacaferi, Dem Maloku, Argon Isufi, Anton Quni, Alija Rabit and Rustem Berisha, who were tried in absentia, guilty of the criminal offence of terrorism and sentencing each of them to 15 years of imprisonment. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) highlights that a distinctive mark of this case was the presence of some illogicalities and serious legal faults emerging from the erroneous qualification of the criminal act and the decision to prosecute the accused in absentia.

• Financial Reparations/Reparations/Press Releases
• 08.02.2016.

New Text of the Bill on Civilian Victims of War further Degrades their Status

The state secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, Dragan Popovic, has recently said that the state respects and fulfils the rights of victims of war and that the Bill on the Rights of Veterans, Disabled Veterans, Civilians Invalids of War and their Families, which, as it has been announced, will be submitted to the Government, is aligned with the European acquis. As regards this statement and having reviewed the revised text of the Bill, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) and the organizations comprising the Coalition Against Discrimination and the Coalition for Access to Justice call on this Ministry to stop deceiving the international and domestic public and above all more than 20,000 civilian victims of war living in Serbia, and to explain why the state refuses to respect their rights guaranteed by international conventions to which Serbia is a signatory.

• Before the internationalised courts in Kosovo/Press Releases/War crime trials
• 25.01.2016.

HLC Kosovo: Oliver Ivanović has been sentenced to nine years of imprisonment for a war crime against civilian population

Following a thirteen-month trial in the case the Prosecutor against Oliver Ivanović et aila,^[1] the international panel of the Basic Court of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica (presided by Judge Roxana Comsa^[2]) announced the judgment on 21 January 2016 finding the accused Oliver Ivanović guilty of the criminal offense of War Crimes Against Civilian Population and sentenced him to imprisonment of nine (9) years. In her brief reasoning that was on this occasion announced to the parties to the proceedings, Judge Comsa said that the Court found that Ivanović was responsible for the crime committed on 14 April 1999 in Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, in Miladin Popović Street (nowadays Ahmet Selaci Street), as well as in Put za Bajr (The Road to Bajr). As a result of the actions of Serbian paramilitary police forces, on that occasion, the following Albanians were killed: Fatmir Mustafa, Skender Paqarada, Avni Abazi and Mehmet Seferi.

• Press Releases
• 20.01.2016.

“Depth Two” Film at 66th Berlin International Film Festival

A low-budget, experimental documentary titled “Depth Two” directed by Ognjen Glavonić will be screen at the 66^th Berlin International Film Festival, which is scheduled to be held from February 11^th until February 21^st. Berlinale is one of the largest and most prestigious film festivals and the world première of this film will be held as part of the “Berlinale Forum” section, which mainly presents avant garde, experimental works, essays, political reportage and yet-to-be-discovered cinematic landscapes and expressions.

• Press Releases/War crime trials
• 04.01.2016.

Draft Strategy for Prosecution of War Crimes Does Not Guarantee More Efficient Prosecution of Perpetrators of War Crimes in Serbia

The Republic of Serbia Ministry of Justice published the
Draft National Strategy for the Prosecution of War Crimes for the period 2016-2020 (Draft Strategy) in November 2015 , in accordance with the Action Plan for Chapter 23, and then opened a public debate, which was closed on December 31st, 2015. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) holds that, even though the Draft Strategy does recognize some of the key shortcomings in the current work of the institutions responsible for the prosecution of war crimes and foresees some good solutions for overcoming these shortcomings, it still fails to establish the key measures for the achievement of the primary objective, which is the more efficient prosecution of war crimes; and therefore it significantly dilutes its potential.

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