War crime

The Bosnian prosecution on Thursday charged Radovan Paprica, alias Papro, and Slavko Ognjenovic, alias Macak, with committing crimes against humanity in Foca in eastern Bosnia in 1992 while they were members of the Bosnian Serb Army.

A new report by the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre, published on Wednesday, said there has been no progress this year so far in the implementation of Serbia's national strategy for the prosecution of war crimes.

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.

Darko Mladic said that he talked to his father from detention unit and that he is feeling well now.
Mladic got sick during his wife's visit on Wednesday, while she also visited him in the hospital on Thursday.

Serge Brammertz. Photo: EPA/EVERT-JAN DANIELS.

More political will and cooperation between former Yugoslav states is needed for the remaining suspects from the 1990s wars to be brought to justice, Hague chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said on Thursday.

The amendments abolish jail sentences of 30 and 40 years - until now the most severe legal penalty for the gravest crimes - and introduces life imprisonment instead.

A new report by the Humanitarian Law Centre NGO in Belgrade, published on Wednesday, said war crimes proceedings in Serbia are subject to long delays and that justice is being further postponed when retrials are held.

"It's disgraceful that a convicted war criminal walks in front of those who want to pay tribute to the allies who have died fighting for justice and peace in Europe. Europe Day=European values," Scott wrote in Serbian on Twitter.

Follow BIRN's reporters live for all the latest developments as the UN court in The Hague delivers its final verdict in the genocide and war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's revised Strategy for War Crimes Processing, which was approved in February last year by the country's judicial overseer, the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council, has not even made it onto the agenda of the Council of Ministers, the executive branch of the state government, BIRN has learned.