Joanna Korner, prosecutor at the Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin trial

Today the prosecution concluded its case at the trial of Mico Stanisic, first Bosnian Serb interior minister, and former chief of the Security Services Center in Banja Luka Stojan Zupljanin.

The indictment charges Stanisic and Zupljanin with persecution, murder, torture, cruel treatment, deportation and inhumane treatment committed by the Bosnian Serb police against Croats and Muslims from April to December 1992 in 20 BH municipalities. The prosecution tried to prove that Stanisic and Zupljanin were part of the joint criminal enterprise that involved the cooperation between the army and the police in the effort to expel Croats and Muslims from the territory of the Serb state.

The trial began on 14 September 2009. The prosecution examined 125 witnesses over a period of 243 days in court. In the opening statement, prosecutor Joanna Korner indicated that the prosecution would prove that the accused had known of the crimes and ‘incited them by failing to punish perpetrators’. According to Korner, it was not just an ‘ordinary omission by failure to act’, but an ‘affirmative sign of commitment to the joint criminal enterprise aimed at ridding the territory of the non-Serbs’.

The accused have 24 hours to indicate if they intend to ask for their acquittal on those counts in the indictment that, in their view, have not been clearly proven by the prosecution. If so, the hearing will be held already on Thursday, 3 February 2011. The Trial Chamber ruled today that the defense case should start in the first week of April 2011.

Mico Stanisic surrendered to the Tribunal voluntarily in March 2005. The second-accused Zupljanin was at large until 11 June 2008 when he was arrested in Pancevo.

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