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ICTY prosecutors seek to amend Mladic indictment

By Jay Carmella

[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] announced Thursday that the Office of the Prosecutor [official website] has filed a motion to amend [press release] the indictment against former Bosnian Serb Commander Ratko Mladic [case materials; JURIST news archive]. Prosecutors believe that the amended indictment will help speed up the court proceedings against Mladic once he is captured. The amended indictment includes [AP report] 11 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war that took place between 1992-1995. The prosecutor's office said:

As set out in the Indictment, Ratko Mladic together with Radovan Karadzic was a key member of an overarching joint criminal enterprise the objective of which was the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Croats from the territory in Bosnia and Hezegovina that Bosnian Serbs claimed for themselves. To achieve this aim, Ratko Mladic, acted in concert with others to commit crimes in different locations and at different times as alleged in the indictment.

Mladic has been a fugitive since 1995, despite frequent calls from the international community to bring him to justice.

The effort to capture and prosecute the participants involved in war crimes remains strong in Eastern Europe. Last week, EU police officers arrested [JURIST report] suspected war criminal Sabit Geci in Kosovo. Geci is accused of being a former member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) [GlobalSecurity backgrounder; JURIST news archive], which allegedly tortured prisoners at an Albanian prison during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. In April, the ICTY resumed [JURIST report] the war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [case materials; JURIST news archive]. In August 2008, Serbian President Boris Tadic [official website] said that his country would fully cooperate with the ICTY [JURIST report] to find Mladic and arrest him. Mladic faces charges of genocide and crimes against humanity for overseeing the Srebrenica [JURIST news archive] prison massacre and other killings of Bosnian Muslims and Croats.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 13, 2010 (boomark / email).