The former leader of Bosnia’s Muslim army, Rasim Delic, was sentenced on Monday to three years in jail by a UN war crimes tribunal for allowing the torture of Bosnian Serb soldiers by Islamic foreign fighters.
Judge Bakone Justice Moloto, citing the “appalling brutal” mistreatment meted out by Islamic foreign fighters during the 1992-1995 Bosnia war, said that tribunal judges had decided by majority that Delic was guilty of one count of cruel treatment by soldiers under his command.
Delic, 59, one of the most senior Bosnian Muslim leaders to appear at the tribunal, failed to prevent or punish cruel treatment by mujahidin fighters in the village of Livade and Kamenica Camp in central Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995, the tribunal said.
During one incident at Kamenica Camp, captured Bosnian Serb Army soldiers were forced to kiss the severed head of a fellow soldier.
Prosecutors argued that Delic had known of the foreign fighters’ inclination to violence and had failed to prevent or punish their atrocities, and had asked for a total sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment.
Moloto himself had dissented in the ruling, saying there was not enough evidence that Delic could have exercised sufficient control over the fighters.
By majority decision, the three-judge panel acquitted Delic of three other counts in his indictment, of murder and cruel treatment.
The court said one of the most serious allegations — the summary execution of about 24 captured Bosnian Croats in June 1993 —took place just before Delic was promoted to commander.
The judges also said they took into account the fact that Delic helped negotiate several peace deals, including the Dayton accord that ended the Bosnian war.
Bosnian Serb and Bosnian Croat officials, as well as war victims groups, said the sentence was too lenient and accused the Hague court of political bias.
Delic is one of a handful of Bosnian Muslims to stand trial in The Hague for war crimes committed during the Bosnian war. Most accused are Serbs but the court has indicted senior figures from all three Bosnian ethnic groups.
Bosnian Serb President Rajko Kuzmanovic called it a “flagrant violation of international law and an example of double standards in judiciary.”
“A verdict like this harms confidence in the activities and neutrality of the tribunal,” Kuzmanovic said in a written statement.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
RSS