THE HAGUE, Oct 22 (Hina) - Eight years after the killing of more than a hundred Bosnian Moslems in the Lasva River valley's village of Ahmici, the appellate panel of judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) will on Tuesday deliver a verdict in the case "Kupreskic and Others", the first final judgement against a group of Bosnian Croats for one of the most heinous crimes of the Croat-Moslem war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The court of first instance last January sentenced five of the indicted Bosnian Croats to eight to 25 years in prison. Vlatko Kupreskic received six years, Zoran Kupreskic ten, his brother Mirjan eight, Drago Josipovic 15 and Vladimir Santic 25 years in prison. The panel of judges acquitted the sixth Croat, Dragan Papic. Tomorrow will see whether and to what degree the appellate panel will honour first case of a Bosnian Croat defendant acting for the prosecution.
THE HAGUE, Oct 22 (Hina) - Eight years after the killing of more than
a hundred Bosnian Moslems in the Lasva River valley's village of
Ahmici, the appellate panel of judges of the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) will on Tuesday deliver a
verdict in the case "Kupreskic and Others", the first final
judgement against a group of Bosnian Croats for one of the most
heinous crimes of the Croat-Moslem war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The court of first instance last January sentenced five of the
indicted Bosnian Croats to eight to 25 years in prison. Vlatko
Kupreskic received six years, Zoran Kupreskic ten, his brother
Mirjan eight, Drago Josipovic 15 and Vladimir Santic 25 years in
prison.
The panel of judges acquitted the sixth Croat, Dragan Papic.
Tomorrow will see whether and to what degree the appellate panel
will honour first case of a Bosnian Croat defendant acting for the
prosecution. Having been read the verdict of first instance,
Vladimir Santic, a former commander of a local Croatian Defence
Council (HVO) military police unit, decided to work with the
prosecution and testify against Dario Kordic and Tihomir Blaskic.
Santic spoke with the prosecutors for the first time last may,
explaining he wished to clear his conscience by telling the truth.
He also admitted that his alibi presented during his defence was
false. Santic claims he made no deals with the prosecution, nor did
he testify motivated by a wish to lessen his punishment during the
appeal process.
During his testimony which was made public in the "Kordic-Cerkez"
verdict, Vladimir Santic had, according to the panel of judges,
offered direct evidence that the HVO had on several occasions
planned the attack on Ahmici and other Moslem villages on April 16,
1993.
The defence council for the five Bosnian Croats in the "Kupreskic"
case has now offered new evidence acquired from archives the
Croatian government authorities had opened up after having come
into power in January 2000. The defence believes that the new
evidence could cast a shadow of doubt on several elements of the
first instance verdict.
The five-member appellate panel of judges has taken some of the
evidence under consideration, and will be showing to what extent
the evidence can affect the verdicts or sentences on Tuesday.
Zoran and Mirjan Kupreskic, Drago Josipovic, Dragan Papic and
Vladimir Santic handed themselves over to the tribunal voluntarily
in October 1997. Vlatko Kupreskic was arrested by NATO-led troops
in Bosnia-Herzegovina at the end of the same year. They have been
held detained at the Hague tribunal ever since.
The ICTY sentenced the former commander of the Central Bosnia
operative zone, Tihomir Blaskic, to 45 years in prison, and former
vice-president of the Croat Community if Herzeg-Bosnia, Dario
Kordic, to 25 years in prison for the crimes in Ahmici. Both are
under appeal.
(hina) lml