Member of a Serb paramilitary group in Visegrad

Mitar Vasiljevic was accused of violations of the laws or customs of war and crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment on 29 November 2002 but the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia Appeals Chamber reduced the sentence to 15 years\' imprisonment on 25 February 2004.
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Identity

• Mitar Vasiljevic was born on 25 August 1954 in Durevici, Visegrad Municipality (BH).
• He was a member of the Serb minority in Visegrad, a town located in southeastern Bosnia-Herzegovina, close to the border with the Republic of Serbia. He participated in the activities of the paramilitary groups led by Milan Lukic during the systematic and large-scale criminal campaign of murder, rapes and mistreatment of the non-Serb population of the municipality, particularly the Muslims, which eventually culminated in one of the most comprehensive and ruthless campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the Bosnian conflict.

Charges

• Mitar Vasiljevic was charged with the murder of 5 Muslim men on the bank of the Drina river in Visegrad on June 1992, and of the murder of about seventy Bosnian Muslim women, children and elderly men, killed during the fire in Pionirska street, also in Visegrad.

Proceeding

• The indicment against Vasiljevic was confirmed on 26 October 1998.
• Mitar Vasiljevic was arrested by SFOR on 25 January 2000 and transfered to the detention unit on the same day.
• Mitar Vasiljevic pleaded not guilty to all charges on 28 January 2000.
• On 24 July 2001, the Trial Chamber, noting that the indictment upon which the accused was to be tried also charged two other accused (Milan and Sredoje Lukic) who had not yet been apprehended, ordered that the accused be tried separately on the indictment.

Chamber

• Judges: David Hunt, Ivana Jan, Chikako Taya.
• Prosecutor: Dermot Groome, Frédéric Ossogo, Mme Sabine Bauer.
• Defence: Vladimir Domazet, Radomir Tanaskovic.

Trial

• « Deputy prosecutor Dermot Groome announced on day 1 of the trial (10 September 2001) that Visegrad was of one of the most successful ethnic cleansing operations ever.

Judgement

• In relation to the Drina river incident, Mitar Vasiljevic was found to have incurred individual criminal responsibility for the murder of the five men, both as a crime against humanity and as a violation of the laws or customs of war. He was also found to have incurred individual criminal responsibility for inhumane acts because he tempted to kill two other men who escaped the shooting.
• In relation to the Pionirska street incident, the Trial Chamber found that the evidence was not sufficiently reliable as to warrant the conclusion that the accused was present in the Pionirska street at the relevant time. Mitar Vasiljevic was thus acquitted of these counts.
• Finally, the Trial Chamber found Mitar Vasiljevic guilty of persecution on political, racial or religious grounds (a crime against humanity), arguing that the five Muslim men were killed only because they were Muslims, and that they had been singled out for religious or political reasons. The acts were thus discriminatory.
• The Trial Chamber noted that an accused\'s level in the overall hierarchy in the conflict is not ultimately decisive of the sentence given. The fact that Mitar Vasiljevic was a low-level offender in terms of the overall conflict in the former Yugoslavia could not alter the seriousness of the offences for which he has been convicted or the circumstances in which he committed them. In this case, the crimes were particularly serious.
• Mitar Vasiljevic was sentenced by the ICTY to 20 years\' imprisonment on 29 November 2002.

Appeal

• On 30 December 2002, Mr. Vasiljevic appealed both the conviction and the sentence, raising eight grounds of appeal. The Prosecution did not appeal.

Appeals Chamber

• Judges : Theodor Meron, Mohamed Shahabuddeen, Mehmet Güney, Wolfgang Schomburg, Inés Mónica Weinberg de Roca.
• Prosecutor : Helen Brady, Michelle Jarvis, Steffen Wirth.
• Defence : Vladimir Domazet, Geert-Jan Knoops.

Judgment

• The Appeals Chamber found that the Trial Chamber had erred in finding that Mitar Vasiljevic responsible as a co-perpetrator to the joint criminal enterprise, arguing that there was no evidence that the Appellant shared the intent to kill the seven Muslim men. However, in preventing the men from escaping on the way to the river bank and during the shooting, Mitar Vasiljevic\'s actions were specifically directed to assist the perpetration of the murders and the inhumane acts. Therefore, the Appeals Chamber declared Mitar Vasiljevic guilty for aiding and abetting murder.
• In the absence of the intent to kill, the Appeals Chamber considered that Mitar Vasiljevic could neither be found responsible for committing the crime of persecution as a co-perpetrator to the joint criminal enterprise. He was nevertheless found responsible for having aided and abetted the crime of persecution.
• The Appeals Chamber of the ICTY revised the sentence itself without remitting it to the Trial Chamber. Since aiding and abetting is a form of responsibility which generally warrants a lower sentence than is appropriate to responsibility as a co-perpetrator, the Appeals Chamber reduced Mitar Vasiljevic\'s sentence from 20 to 15 years\' imprisonment on 25 February 2004.
• Mitar Vasiljevic was transferred to Austria to serve his sentence.