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On the verdict of the Higher Court in Begrade in the Lovas Case

On the verdict of the Higher Court in Begrade in the Lovas Case

lovas

On June 20, 2019, the Higher Court in Belgrade issued a verdict in which it found the eight indictees guilty of a war crime committed in October 1991 in Lovas (Croatia), and sentenced them from four to eight years in prison. Sentences for five indictees were reduced in relation to those imposed in the first instance trial, while for three other indictees the sentences remained the same. Milan Devčić was sentenced to eight years in prison, Saša Stojanović to seven years in prison, Zoran Kosijer, Željko Krnjajić and Jovan Dimitrijević to six years in prison, Darko Perić and Radovan Vlajković were sentenced to five years in prison, and Radisav Josipović was sentenced to four years in prison. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) considers that owing to failures in the work of the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor (OWCP), only a few perpetrators have been convicted for the crime in Lovas and many victims have been omitted, and that the sentences imposed are too light in relation to the gravity of the crime committed.


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Letter to Judge Carmel Agius, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals

Letter to Judge Carmel Agius, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals

irmct-logoYour Honor,

As nongovernmental organizations for human rights, we believe that a person convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide, should not be commutation of sentence if they have not publicly addressed the families of their victims, expressing sincere regret and clearly demonstrating a readiness to help identify the perpetrators of specific crimes and reveal mass graves.

We are addressing you in regard to the possible paroling of Vlastimir Đorđević, sentenced to 18 years in prison for participation in a joint criminal enterprise, which included the crimes of murder, deportation, persecution and other inhumane acts. He was convicted in connection with the deportation of at least 200,000 Kosovo Albanians from 13 municipalities in Kosovo, the murder of at least 724 ethnic Albanians, and the forced relocation of the bodies of victims and their concealment in mass graves in the territory of Serbia. The ICTY Appeals Chamber established that Đorđević, as Head of the Public Security Department with the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, ordered the bodies of Kosovo Albanians be buried in mass graves in the territory of Serbia, in order to remove evidence of the crimes committed, as well as that he “clearly issued orders related to the clandestine handling of the bodies, their transportation and reburial.”


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