Bosnian Serbs May Face Shorter Indictment
Pre-trial judge asks prosecution to consider removing certain charges in Stanisic and Zupljanin case before next hearing.
Bosnian Serbs May Face Shorter Indictment
Pre-trial judge asks prosecution to consider removing certain charges in Stanisic and Zupljanin case before next hearing.
The prosecution in the case of former Bosnian Serb interior minister Mico Stanisic and ex-police chief Stojan Zupljanin has been asked by the pre-trial judge to consider cutting parts of the indictment for which it has insufficent supportive evidence.
Judge Frederick Harhoff this week said that a Hague tribunal hearing scheduled for July 21 would determine whether “there will be an eventual shortening of the indictment against Stanisic and Zupljanin”.
The two cases, which were originally separate, were merged into one consolidated indictment in September last year.
Both accused have pleaded not guilty to charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, persecutions, deportation and inhumane acts. This week the tribunal set August 31 as the start date for their trial.
They stand charged with participating in a criminal enterprise aimed at permanently removing Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats and other non-Serb inhabitants from the territory of a “planned Serb state” in Bosnia.
According to the indictment, other members of the joint criminal enterprise included the Bosnian Serb political and military leadership, leading members of the Yugoslav People's Army, JNA, as well as members of the security services.
The 1992-95 war claimed an estimated 100,000 victims, the majority of them Bosnian Muslims killed in Bosnian Serb-held territory.
The current charges state that from April 1992, Stanisic was the minister in charge of the newly founded Serb ministry of internal affairs in Bosnia.
As interior minister, Stanisic was the most senior ministry official, and a member of the Bosnian Serb government of Republika Srpska, RS.
Zupljanin was since 1991 the chief of the regional security services centre of Banja Luka, and in 1992, became an advisor to RS president Radovan Karadzic – himself now on trial for genocide.
Stanisic surrendered to the Hague tribunal in March 2005, while Zupljanin was in hiding until June that same year, when he was arrested in the town of Pancevo just outside the Serbian capital Belgrade.
Judge Harhoff suggested to the prosecution that it “should consider, [before] the next status conference is held, eliminating those elements from [its] indictment which it has no sufficiently supportive evidence of, such as the involvement of the police [in certain crimes]”.
He also said that after close consideration of a request by Stanisic, a decision had been reached on “approving his request on renewed temporary release – he is free to go back home as soon as the weekend comes”.
“The same request for temporary release was submitted by the accused Stojan Zupljanin, but the court had decided to deny this application,” said the judge.
He explained this decision by pointing out that Stanisic “voluntarily surrendered to the Hague tribunal, which was not the case of Zupljanin, who had been arrested”.
Judge Harhoff added that at the next pre-trial status conference on July 21, the tribunal would also present its decision on a request from the prosecutor's office “asking for 285 work hours necessary for presenting their evidence and witnesses”.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained reporter in Sarajevo.
