Court of appeal in Belgrade denied Munir Šabotić, a victim of police torture, right to just compensation
BELGRADE, November 30th, 2011.
The Court of Appeal in Belgrade has rendered a judgment denying the compensation lawsuit filed by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on behalf of Munir Šabotić, a victim of torture, which he was subjected to by members of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) in Novi Pazar in August and September 1994. The Court of Appeal accepted the appeal filed by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Republic of Serbia and modified the judgment, which originally had granted Munir Šabotić compensation to the amount of 300,000 RSD and had ordered him to pay for litigation expenses to the amount of 20,000 RSD. The HLC believes that the Court of Appeal arbitrarily and unjustly denied the right to compensation for the violation of human rights, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, the laws, and various international conventions. For this reason, the HLC will file a complaint on behalf of Munir Šabotić with the Constitutional Court of Serbia.
The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) filed a criminal complaint with the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia against more than 30 individuals, members of the former Territorial Defense (TO) and police station in Tenja (Croatia), as well as a number of members of the Novi Sad Corps of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), members of military and civilian secret services, and groups under the command of Željko Ražnatović Arkan for war crimes committed in Tenja in 1991 against the civilian population and prisoners of war.
Department for War Crimes of the High Court in Belgrade sentenced on September 23, 2011 the accused Veljko Maric to 12 years in prison for war crimes committed in 1991 against civilians in the village Rastovac (Croatia). The Humanitarian law Center believes that Veljko Maric, a Croatian citizen, should be tried in Croatia, that the Republic of Serbia should have extradited him to Croatia, and that it should have submitted evidence against him to the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic of Croatia, in accordance with the 2006 Agreement on cooperation in the prosecution of war crimes offenders. HLC reminds that the War Crimes Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia has filed at least 10 indictments against war criminals, citizens of Serbia, based on evidence handed over to it by the State Attorney’s Office of the Republic fo Croatia.
The Decision of the ICTY Appeals Chamber, rendered on July 19th, 2011, affirming the conviction of the journalist Florence Hartmann for disclosing the contents of two confidential Decisions rendered by the Court, represents a negation of two transitional justice imperatives: to know the facts about the recent past and to prevent the recurrence of war crimes.