Simic Sentence Reduced on Appeal

Simic, who was the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb politician in the Bosanski Samac municipality, northern Bosnia, was convicted by the trial chamber on October 17, 2003, of participating in a joint criminal enterprise whose aim was the persecution of non-Serbs in that area between 1992 and 1993.



According to the indictment, Simic was “the apex” of this joint criminal enterprise. It is further alleged that during his tenure as head of the local branch of the SDS, the Serb crisis staff and the municipal assembly, the area of Bosanksi Samac was ethnically cleansed of its Croat and Muslim population. Of the estimated 17,000 Croats and Muslims in the municipality before the war, only 300 remained by May 1995.



But on November 28, the appeals chamber found that the allegations in the indictment regarding Simic’s role in the joint criminal enterprise had not been clear, and overturned that part of his sentence. The chamber further stated that the prosecution had not provided information about the allegations to Simic’s defence team in a timely manner.



The appeals chamber also reversed Simic’s conviction for persecution in the form of torture and beating.



However, it maintained Simic’s conviction for aiding and abetting persecution in the form of the unlawful arrests and detention of non-Serb civilians, confinement of non-Serb prisoners in inhumane conditions, forced labour by Bosnian Croats and Bosnian Muslims and forced displacement of non-Serb civilians.



The majority decision of the appeals chamber, with two judges dissenting, has reduced Simic’s sentence to 15 years. He has already served five years and eight-and-a-half-months in the UN Detention Unit, which will be credited against his sentence.



Katherine Boyle is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.