Mico Stanisic i Stojan Zupljanin in the courtroom

Judge Burton Hall’s Trial Chamber handed down the sentences of 22 years in prison to Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin. Stanisic was the first wartime interior minister in the Bosnian Serb government and Zupljanin was the chief of the Security Services Center in Banja Luka.

The Trial Chamber established ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ that through their acts and omissions the accused ‘significantly contributed’ to the joint criminal enterprise whose objective was to permanently remove Bosnian Muslims and Croats from the territory of the planned Serb state. Many members of the Bosnian Serb military and political leadership, including Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, were involved in the enterprise, the judgment stated.

Stanisic was found guilty on three and Zupljanin on four counts in the indictment. The judges found that both of them were guilty of the persecution as a crime against humanity through the underlying acts of killing, torture, unlawful detention, establishment and perpetuation of inhumane living conditions, forcible transfer and deportation, plunder of property, wanton destruction of towns and villages including destruction or willful damage done to religious and other cultural buildings, and through the imposition and maintenance of restrictive and discriminatory measures. Both Stanisic and Zupljanin were convicted of murder and torture as violations of laws and customs of war. Zupljanin was also convicted of extermination as a crime against humanity.

In the judgment summary, Judge Hall highlighted the characteristic pattern of the commission of crimes repeated in all 20 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina listed in the indictment. According to the Trial Chamber’s factual findings, the joint Serb forces – including the police – first used violence to take over the municipalities, disarmed and robbed non-Serbs. The men, women, children and the elderly were indiscriminately arrested and detained. The civilians were detained in inhumane conditions where they were physically abused, sexually assaulted and killed. The same pattern was replicated to varying degrees of intensity in Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Bileca, Bosanski Samac, Brcko, Doboj, Donji Vakuf, Ilijas, Kljuc, Kotor Varos, Pale, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Skender Vakuf, Teslic, Vlasenica, Visegrad, Vogosca and Zvornik.

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