Lull in Hague courtrooms this week

Lull in Hague courtrooms this week

There will be a brief lull in ICTY courtrooms next week. Only two trials will continue: that of General Dragomir Milošević, charged with artillery and sniper campaign in Sarajevo between August 1994 and November 1995, and that of the six former Bosnian Croat leaders – Jadranko Prlić, Milivoj Petković, Slobodan Praljak, Bruno Stojić, Valentin Corić and Berislav Pušić. The six were charged with crimes in Central Bosnia and Western Herzegovina in 1993 and 1994. The prosecution is presenting its case in both trials.

The two mega-trials: that of the seven Bosnian Serb military and police officers charged with genocide and other crimes in Srebrenica and Žepa in the summer of 1995 and that of the six former political, military and police officials from Serbia charged with crimes against humanity in Kosovo in the first half of 1999 will continue on February 19, after a one-week break in the prosecution case.

On Thursday, February 15, there will be a status conference in the case against Milan and Sredoje Lukić, charged with crimes that took place in Višegrad in 1992. The parties are waiting for Trial Chamber to deliver its decision on the prosecution’s application for the referral of the case to Bosnian courts.

Serbia has also offered to take on the case against the two Lukićs. Milan Lukić has already been tried in absentia and sentenced to 20 years by a Serbian court for crimes against the civilian population. If the Trial Chamber decides to refer the case to any of the national courts, it will have to seek the approval of the Argentinean government, which extradited Milan Lukić to the Tribunal last year.

At the referral hearing last September, a representative of the Argentinean government indicated it would be easier for the government to agree to a trial in Belgrade, because Serbia had officially sought his extradition after his arrest, while Bosnia and Herzegovina had shown no interest.