KARLOVAC, July 31 (Hina) - The court in the Croatian town of Karlovac on Wednesday proclaimed Fikret Abdic guilty of war crimes and sentenced him to 20-year-long imprisonment.
KARLOVAC, July 31 (Hina) - The court in the Croatian town of
Karlovac on Wednesday proclaimed Fikret Abdic guilty of war crimes
and sentenced him to 20-year-long imprisonment. #L#
Abdic was tried for war crimes against civilians and prisoners of
war on two counts of the indictment which was issued in August 1996
by the High Public Prosecutor in Bihac, north-western Bosnia-
Herzegovina.
Pursuant to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Croatia, the trial was
transferred to Croatia's judiciary a year ago, namely to the
Karlovac County Court, based on an agreement between the
governments of the two countries regarding legal assistance signed
in 1996. Abdic has the dual citizenship (Croatian and Bosnian) and
therefore could be tried in Croatia, after he surrendered himself
to Rijeka police.
The charges against Abdic burden him with acting against the
Constitution of Bosnia when he proclaimed the Autonomous Region of
Western Bosnia and as supreme commander of the so-called National
Defence of Western Bosnia, ordered, planned and organised the
opening of prisoner of war camps and collection centres in the
Velika Kladusa Municipality for the purpose of detaining citizens
who opposed the autonomous region.
The charges note that the camps were a site of inhumane treatment,
forced military service in paramilitary units, forced hunger and
forced labour for enemy forces.
Expounding the first-instance ruling, Jasminka Jerinic-Musnjak,
the president of the panel of judges in the Karlovac county court,
said the verdict was based on the Croatia's Penal Code, and the
sentence was maximum, as the acts cited in the indictment were
treated as the gravest crimes according to Croatia's law and
international humanitarian law.
The panel of judges believes that the punishment must be of this
kind as to clearly show that war crimes, particularly those
committed by senior officials in the structure of authority, are
condemned by the civilised and democratic society, she said.
The sentence contains not only the punishment of the defendant, but
also an element of the so-called general prevention which must
clearly show that such conduct was impermissible and punishable,
Ms. Jerinic Musnjak said.
(hina) ms