Although Serbia's Supreme Court on June 19, 2001 quashed the verdict of September 2000 sentencing in absence 14 former western leaders to 20 years in prison for the bombardment of the FRY (Javier Solana, Bill Clinton, Madelaine Albright, Tony Blair, Robin Cook, George Robertson, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder, Joschka Fischer, Wesley Clark and others), they still have the status of indictees because the highest judicial organs of Serbia and Montenegro have failed to rule on the case after 3.5 years.
After the Supreme Court quashed the initial verdict, the case was returned to the Belgrade District Court for reconsideration, after which the District Prosecutor dropped four charges, however, the indictment remained in force in the segment referring to the violation of the FRY's sovereignty. Under a decision by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the case was within the jurisdiction of the military and not the civil judiciary, the case was forwarded to the military prosecutor.
"However, the military prosecutor and the supreme military prosecutor appealed against the District Prosecutor's decision filing a request for protection of lawfulness with the federal court, claiming that it was them who should have ruled also on acts which were dropped by the civil judiciary. The then state prosecutor failed to decide on the case before the abolishment of federal bodies in late 2003, and nothing changed with its transfer to the Serbian prosecution, where it remained shelved until the abolishment of the military judiciary," the daily reports. After the recent abolishment of the military judiciary, the Belgrade District Prosecutor will have to decide whether to continue the prosecution of the indictees or drop the indictment.