In 2001, the UN tribunal's trial chamber sentenced Kordic to 25 years in prison and Cerkez to 15 years, finding them guilty of crimes against humanity, violations of the law and customs of war and serious breaches of the Geneva conventions which they committed against Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) civilians in the Lasva valley including the central Bosnian municipalities of Busovaca, Vitez, Novi Travnik and Kiseljak.
According to the ICTY's statement on Friday, the Appeals Chamber "confirms that Dario Kordic 'as the responsible regional politician planned and instigated the crimes which occurred in Ahmici on 16 April 1993 and its associated hamlets of Santici, Pirici and Nadioci' and which were 'aimed at ethnically cleansing the area'".
The Appeals Chamber says that "Kordic's involvement in the persecutory campaign" included also the crimes committed in the municipality of Kiseljak.
He was also found guilty of unlawful detention of civilians in detention centres in Vitez and Kiseljak.
The Appeals Chamber allowed some of the the defence team's appeals grounds and dismissed the trial chamber's ruling about Kordic's responsibility for persecution, attacks on civilians and civilian objects, murder and destruction of civilian objects during attacks against Bosniaks in Novi Travnik in October 1992, Busovaca in January 1993 and villages of Vecerska, Santici, Rotilja, Grahovci, Tulica and Svinjarevo in April 1993.
Affirming the trial chamber's ruling about his responsibility for the persecution of Bosniaks, which was treated as a crime against humanity, the Appeals Chamber states that on the basis of his "political activities and inclinations, his strong nationalist and ethnic stance, and his desire to attain the sovereign Croatian state within the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina at any cost". Kordic "possessed the specific intent to discriminate which is required for the crime of persecutions."
The Appeals Chamber also concluded that "Croatia exercised overall control over the HVO (Bosnian Croat Defence units) and "provided leadership, coordination and organisation of the HVO and that there was an international armed conflict between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina", which serves as the basis for establishing somebody's responsibility fo the breaches of the Geneva conventions.
The Appeals Chamber rejected all appeals submitted by the prosecution, and confirmed Kordic's sentence of 25 years in jail.
The Chamber also decided that the time Kordic spent in custody after he voluntarily surrendered to the ICTY on 6 October 1997 would be included in the sentence. Showing no emotions, Dario Kordic, born on 14 December 1960 in Busovaca, calmly listened to the Chamber while the ruling was read in the tribunal's courtroom today in The Hague.
The Appeals Chamber accepted more appeals grounds in the case of the second indictee, the 45-year-old Mario Cerkez. It, however, confirms that "Cerkez bears criminal responsibility for the imprisonment and unlawful confinement of Bosnian Muslim civilians" in Vitez in March and April 1993. These crimes was treated as crimes against humanity and serious breaches of the Geneva conventions.
The Appeals Chamber rejects all other parts of the trial chamber's ruling in the case of Cerkez, including his responsibility for crimes in Veceriska, Vitez and Stari Vitez in April 1993 and his command responsibility which the trial chamber established. It imposed a new sentence of six years' imprisonment on him.
Cerkez also voluntarily surrendered to the ICTY on 6 October 1997, since when he was kept in the Scheveningen detention centre. He was released earlier this month, as he already spent more time in custody than what the final sentence is.
Cerkez did not appear in the courtroom today, exercising his right, given him by the tribunal, not to attend the announcement of the final ruling in The Hague.