Theodor Meron addresses Security Council

The Tribunal’s president, Judge Theodor Meron presented his regular biannual report to the UN Security Council. The report contained the latest estimates for the completion of the remaining trials in The Hague. Seventeen accused are currently on trial and the cases of 17 accused are in the appellate stage. The case against Goran Hadzic is in the pre-trial stage; it is expected to start on 16 October 2012.

According to the schedule announced today, a number of judgments will be delivered at the end of this year. In December 2012, the Trial Chambers will hand down its judgments in the case against six former Herceg Bosna leaders headed by Jadranko Prlic and in the partial re-trial of KLA commanders Haradinaj, Balaj and Brahimaj. By the end of this year, the Trial Chambers should deliver their judgments in the trials of the two chiefs of the Serbian State Security Service, Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic, of Mladic’s former assistant for security and intelligence in the VRS Main Staff Zdravko Tolimir, and in the case against Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin, war-time leaders in the Bosnian Serb police.

The Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj will have to wait for the Trial Chamber’s judgment in his ‘main case’ for crimes against humanity in Vojvodina, Croatia and BH at least until March 2013. By then Seselj will probably hear the Appeals Chamber’s judgment on his second contempt of court indictment and the first-instance judgment on the third contempt of court indictment. Seselj was indicted for disclosing in public the confidential information about protected prosecution witnesses.

In August 2012, four months later than originally anticipated, the Appeals Chamber will deliver the appellate judgment to Milan and Sredoje Lukic. The Trial Chamber sentenced Milan Lukic to life and Sredoje Lukic to 30 years in prison for crimes in Visegrad. The appellate judgment for generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac will be rendered as early as in December 2012, instead of July or August 2013, as anticipated in the previous report the ICTY President presented to the Security Council. Gotovina was sentenced to 24 years and Markac to 18 years in prison for crimes during and after Operation Storm.

Next year, the Appeals Chamber plans to deliver final judgments in several cases. The first, in June 2013, is the case of Momcilo Perisic, former chief of the VJ General Staff. Perisic was sentenced to 27 years in prison for aiding and abetting crimes of the commanders and soldiers in the Serb armies in Bosnia and Croatia. A month later, the final judgment will be rendered in the case of the ‘Kosovo Five’. The Trial Chamber sentenced five high-ranking Serb officials for crimes in Kosovo in 1999. In October 2013, Vlastimir Djordjevic will receive his appellate judgment. The Serbian police general was sentenced to 27 years in prison for crimes in Kosovo. Finally, in November 2014, the Appeals Chamber will render its judgment in the case of six VRS officers convicted of genocide and other crimes in Srebrenica.

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