Galic Transferred to Germany

Former Bosnian Serb army, VRS, commander Stanislav Galic has been transferred to Germany to serve the remainder of the life sentence he received for crimes committed in and around Sarajevo from 1992 to 1994.



In December 2003, Galic was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for sniping and shelling attacks on civilian targets in Sarajevo that judges said were “primarily intended to terrorise the civilian population”.



In its judgement, the trial chamber found that the civilian population of Bosnia’s capital was subject to deliberate and unprovoked attacks by sniper and mortar fire by the Sarajevo Romanija Corps, which was under Galic’s command until August 1994.



Judges said that Galic not only knew of crimes carried out by his subordinates, but also controlled the pace and scale of them.



Both the prosecution and defence appealed the judgement.



In November 2006, the appeals chamber dismissed all 19 grounds of appeal by Galic.



However, appeal judges allowed the prosecution’s appeal on his length of sentence. They found that the trial chamber had underestimated the severity of Galic’s criminal conduct and sentenced him to life imprisonment.



In 2007, Galic’s successor as commander of the Sarajevo Romanija Corps, Dragomir Milosevic, was sentenced to 33 years’ imprisonment for his role in sniping and shelling attacks on civilian targets in Sarajevo. His conviction is under appeal.



Merdijana Sadovic is IWPR’s Hague tribunal programme manager.