Ljuboten Appeal Judgement
Judges to issue decision in only tribunal case related to the Macedonian conflict.
Ljuboten Appeal Judgement
Judges to issue decision in only tribunal case related to the Macedonian conflict.
The appeals judgement in the case of former Macedonian police officials Ljube Boskoski and Johan Tarculovski will be delivered at a public hearing on May 19, judges at the Hague tribunal announced last week.
In July 2008, judges acquitted Boskoski, a former interior minister, of failing to investigate the murder and cruel treatment of ethnic Albanian civilians by Macedonian police and ensuring that those responsible were punished. However, they sentenced Tarculovski, a former police officer and bodyguard, to 12 years in prison for the murder and cruel treatment of the Albanians in the 2001 attack on the Macedonian village of Ljuboten.
Judges found that between August 12 and 15, 2001, a police unit under Tarculovski’s command entered the village and shot six unarmed Albanians and severely mistreated 13 other residents, one of whom later died.
They said that Tarculovski had a direct role in “ordering, planning and instigating the crimes committed in Ljuboten”.
Tarculovski appealed against his conviction, while prosecutors appealed against Boskowski’s acquittal.
In Boskowski’s case, judges had found that while evidence revealed “a serious failure of the functioning of the police and the responsible Macedonian officials at the time, it has not been established that Boskoski failed to take the necessary and reasonable measures for the punishment of the police”.
This case is the only one related to the Macedonian conflict to have been heard by the Hague tribunal.
Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.
