Legal Journals

Prison Guards Found Guilty by Bosnian Court

By bwessel

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has found two Bosnian Serbs guilty of crimes against humanity for mistreatment of non-Serb detainees at a detention center in the Bosnian town of Fo?a.  Mitar Ra?evi? and Savo Todovi?, prison guards at the Fo?a correctional facility during the Balkan wars in the mid-1990s, were sentenced prison terms of 8.5 years and 12.5 years, respectively.

Ra?evi? and Todovi? were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), then transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina?s national court system for trial.  Although the ICTY still tries the most senior leaders, the ICTY has begun transferring lower-ranking defendants to national courts.  This is seen as significant progress in the ICTY?s attempts to strengthen rule of law by forging a partnership with the national judiciary.  So far, the ICTY has transferred ten defendants in six cases to Bosnia and Herzigovina?s national courts.

More information can be found here.

Full post as published by Harvard International Law Journal Digest on March 06, 2008 (boomark / email).