The ICTY regulations allow the defendant not to enter a plea at the initial appearance but to do it within 30 days.
Zelenovic was transferred to Sarajevo by the authorities of Russia where he had been hiding for a number of years. He was arrested in August 2005 in Siberia.
Under the indictment, issued on 26 June 1996, Zelenovic was one of the commanders of the military police and paramilitary units in Foca. He is charged with the torture, sexual abuse and rape of Muslim women. The indictment reads that Zelenovic had sexually abused, raped and participated in group rapes of Muslim women imprisoned in eastern Bosnia, including a group rape of a 15 year-old girl.
Zelenovic is charged together with Gojko Jankovic, Radovan Stankovic, Dragoljub Kunarac, Radomir Kovac, Zoran Vukovic, members of the Serb army in Bosnia. The ICTY has sentenced Kunarac, Kovac and Vukovic to 28, 20 and 12 years in prison.