Home arrow Europe arrow Serbia
Serbia War Crimes Court Print E-mail
Europe - Serbia
 
 
NAME OF MECHANISM

Serbia War Crimes Court

 
YEARS OF OPERATION

The first trial began in March 2004.

 
MANDATE AND OPERATIONS

Mandate: Established by the Serbian Parliament to try those accused of war crimes within Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia during 1992-1995 conflict. Some cases, of lower level perpetrators, have also been transferred from the Hague.

 
LATEST UPDATE

January 2008: In April 2007 the WCC jailed four men who were filmed as they shot dead 6 Bosnian Muslims during the Srebrenica Massacre in July 1995. The Scorpions unit leader, Slobodan Medic and one of his accomplices, Branislav Medic, were given 20 years each. The other two, Pera Petrasevic and Aleksander Medic were given 13 and 5 years respectively. A fifth man, Aleksander Vukov was cleared. The victims' families expressed disappointment in the verdicts, which were far below the maximum penalty of 40 years. [BBC]

In September 2006, the WCC sentenced its first ethnic Albanian. Anton Lekaj, former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army, was given 13 years for the torture, rape and murder of four Kosovan gypsies. [JURIST]

A landmark case began in February 2006, when Bosnia brought charges against Serbia for the genocide of non-Serbs in Bosnia. This is the first genocide case to be brought by one state against another.

The first trial focused on the events that occurred in Vukovar and involved 6 men accused of killing 200 civilians.

 

 

 
COUNTRY LOCATION
MECHANISM
STATUS

FUNCTIONING
OTHER MECHANISMS

Truth and Reconciliation Commission