International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

The Association of Defence Counsel Practising Before the International Courts and Tribunals urged the UN's Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Friday to free elderly war crime convicts to help ensure that they are not infected with the COVID-19 virus.

The US Supreme Court has confirmed that it long ago dismissed an appeal by a Bosnian Serb for it to hear his case against the Office of the High Representative, OHR - the international body overseeing the 1995 Dayton peace deal in Bosnia.

"By refusing to create a joint commission [RECOM], the governments of the post-Yugoslav countries have made another political mistake. We think that the nominal list of victims cannot be abandoned. It is about taking charge of and assuming the responsibility for seeing this task through to the end," Terselic told BIRN.

The denial of war-related responsibility remains prevalent throughout the former Yugoslavia, and some of those who have denied their guilt are treated as heroes in their home countries.

"Someone who admits to his guilt is [seen as] a traitor," said Dusko Tomic, a lawyer from Sarajevo who has defended people accused of war crimes.

A Bosnian-born woman who came to Austria as a child refugee will be Austria's new Justice Minister, it was confirmed on Thursday.

Thirty-five-year-old Alma Zadic, a lawyer and member of the Green Party, will also be the youngest Justice Minister in Austrian history and the first to come from an immigrant background.

The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network on Wednesday published its updated and improved War Crimes Verdicts Map, enabling users to search rulings in cases from courts across the former Yugoslavia and from the UN tribunal in The Hague.

The UN-backed Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals has announced that it has extended Jovica Stanisic's provisional release until April 30, 2020 because of his continuing illness.

It said that the extension was possible because "there is no indication that he has ever engaged in any practice undermining the administration of justice".

Gotovina became a national icon when he was indicted in July 2001 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY for large-scale crimes against Serb civilians during and after Operation Storm. A broad section of the Croatian public supported his cause, seeing him as a victim of unfair treatment of the young Croatian state by the international community.

Vlastimir Djordjevic has filed a request for early release to the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, citing his age, his need to be with his family and the fact that he has apologised for the crimes in which he was involved.

In an unexpected turn of events, Kosovo's Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj held an extraordinary press conference on Friday to announce that he was resigning because he could not be premier at the same time as being a war crimes suspect.