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Acquitted Yugoslavia ex-military officer sues Serbia over imprisonment

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Former Yugoslav National Army officer Miroslav Radic on Wednesday sued Serbia for the four years and six months he was detained during his trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Radic was acquitted of war crimes charges by the ICTY in 2007 and is seeking more than $600,000 in compensation for his imprisonment. Lawyers for Serbia argued that, because the ICTY is not a Serbian court, the country's Code of Criminal Procedure does not provide for his compensation. Lawyers for Radic argued that he should still receive the money because of the role Serbia played in his prosecution before the ICTY. The ICTY does not compensate acquitted suspects for time they have served in prison during trial. Radic was originally accused of "planning, instigating, ordering or otherwise aiding and abetting" war crimes in the 1991 Vukovar massacre  in which Serb-led forces executed approximately 260 detainees. Radic was the only acquitted member of the so-called "Vukovar Three", which included Mile Mrksic and Veselin Sljivancanin. Last year, Norway agreed to extradite an unnamed Croatian citizen for his alleged involvement in the massacre. The Serbian Supreme Court in 2006 ordered a retrial for 14 convicted Serbians for their involvement in the massacre.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 20, 2009 (boomark / email).