In April this year the Hague tribunal declared Kovacevic unfit for trial due to a mental illness.
The ICTY instructed the Office of the Prosecutor to continue reporting regularly about the case to be referred to Serbia and decided that there exist mechanisms to follow Kovacevic's condition and launch procedure in case he is declared fit for trial.
Kovacevic commanded the 3rd Battalion of the JNA Trebinje Brigade, from whose positions the old part of Dubrovnik was shelled on 6 December 1991. The shelling of Dubrovnik is the central count of the joint indictment against Kovacevic and his superiors, General Pavle Strugar and Admiral Miodrag Jokic, who were sentenced to eight and seven years in prison respectively.
The Kovacevic case is the first ICTY case in which the accused was declared unfit for trial due to a mental illness.
So far the ICTY has referred nine cases to Bosnia-Herzegovina and one case to Croatia.