THE HAGUE, July 21 (Hina) - Responding to an appeal submitted by former regional commander of the Croatian Council of Defence in Bosnia Tihomir Blaskic, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia's (ICTY)
Prosecutor's Office said all items of the appeal were unfounded. The Prosecution concluded that the trial chamber passed the correct verdict, according to which Blaskic was found guilty, on both personal and command responsibility, for the persecution of the Muslim population from the Lasva Valley.
THE HAGUE, July 21 (Hina) - Responding to an appeal submitted by
former regional commander of the Croatian Council of Defence in
Bosnia Tihomir Blaskic, the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia's (ICTY) Prosecutor's Office said all items
of the appeal were unfounded. The Prosecution concluded that the
trial chamber passed the correct verdict, according to which
Blaskic was found guilty, on both personal and command
responsibility, for the persecution of the Muslim population from
the Lasva Valley. #L#
According to the ICTY prosecution, Blaskic's defence failed to
prove that the trial chamber made a mistake when deciding that
Blaskic's attempt was the ethnic cleansing of Central Bosnia and
that the Croatian Council of Defence, under his command, launched
an attack on Muslim civilians in Vitez and Busovaca on April 16,
1993.
In its 250 pages statement, the ICTY Prosecution did not comment on
new evidence which the appellant requested to be admitted as
additional evidence, with an explanation that the trial chamber had
not as yet made a decision on whether to allow new evidence or not.
These are mostly documents hidden by the authorities during the
Tudjman's regime, Blaskic said in his appeal.
The ICTY trial chamber on March 3, 2000 found Tihomir Blaskic guilty
of crimes against humanity and war crimes. He was sentenced to 45
years imprisonment.
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