Trbic Sentence Confirmed
Appeal rejected in case of former Bosnian Serb army officer convicted of genocide.
Trbic Sentence Confirmed
Appeal rejected in case of former Bosnian Serb army officer convicted of genocide.
The appeals chamber of the Bosnia-Hercegovina, BiH, court this week confirmed the first-instance verdict sentencing former Bosnian Serb officer Milorad Trbic to 30 years in prison for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
Trbic, the former assistant chief of security of the Zvornik brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, VRS, is the highest-ranking army official to have been tried at the war crimes court in Sarajevo, and the first person to be found guilty of genocide by a national court.
He was found guilty of involvement in the persecution, detention and execution of Bosnian Muslims from the Srebrenica enclave, as well as in the burial and re-burial of bodies in order to hide evidence of the crimes. Some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed in the atrocity.
Trbic was originally sentenced on October 16, 2009, a judgement appealed by both sides in October the following year. The prosecution asked for a maximum sentence of 45 years, while the defence called for a re-trial and a not-guilty verdict.
However, on January 17, 2011, the appeals chamber dismissed the appeals from both the prosecution and defence teams, upholding the trial judgement in its entirety.
The head of the public relations department of the prosecutor’s office, Boris Grubesic, told IWPR that the prosecution was “pleased with the verdict, because it is a genocide verdict”.
However, Munira Subasic, the president of the Movement of Mothers of the Srebrenica and Zepa Enclaves, told IWPR that the victims were not happy with the length of the sentence.
“We consider that what Trbic did to our children, husbands, families, and to us women who were left alone, should have been punished with the maximum punishment the prosecution asked for,” she said.
Trbic’s lawyer, Milan Trbojevic, said that he considered the verdict to be a “judicial disgrace”.
“Had the trial been fair and lawful, he would have been freed,” he continued. “I don't know what Milorad Trbic did in Srebrenica, and what not, but as a professional who looks on evidence, I know and I am sure that he was found guilty on the basis of invalid evidence, and that there is no proof whatsoever for his guilt.”
Trbic's case was transferred to the Bosnian court from the Hague tribunal in June 2007, and the Bosnian court confirmed the original indictment brought by Hague prosecutors against Trbic the following month.
On August 9, 2007, he failed to appear to enter a plea and the court recorded a plea of not guilty on his behalf. The trial began in November 2007.
Trbic was originally charged by the Hague tribunal alongside former senior Bosnian Serb police and army officers Vinko Pandurevic, Ljubisa Beara, Ljubomir Borovcanin, Milan Gvero, Radivoje Miletic, Drago Nikolic and Vujadin Popovic.
The seven were found guilty of genocide, murder, persecutions, forcible transfer and deportation committed in the Srebrenica enclave in July 1995.
On June 10, 2010, they received various sentences by the tribunal, which they all appealed apart from Borovcanin, who did not contest his 17-year prison term.
Popovic and Beara were sentenced to life imprisonment, Nikolic to 35, Miletic to 19, Pandurevic to 13, and Gvero to five years.
All the appealed trial judgements are now pending at the Hague tribunal.
Velma Saric is an IWPR-trained journalist in Sarajevo.
