 By Merima HUSEJNOVIC: At that time the Ministry of Justice, the initiator and main leader of this project, said that once the War Crimes and Organized Crime Sections of the Court started working, “the capability of entity facilities for execution of sanctions of people deprived of liberty and maintenance of safe environment would be brought into questionâ€.
Four years on, although the State Court has sentenced 85 people by second-instance verdicts, 35 for war crimes, there is still no special facility to which they can be sent. The only activity in this field completed to date is a wall, built to surround the future prison, which will be located in eastern Ilidza, 10 kilometers from the State Court. |
Four years since the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina started processing war crimes, the building of a state level prison has not yet begun.
In the meantime, millions of convertible marks have been spent on providing accommodation for detainees and convicts in entity-level facilities, which neither have high levels of security nor meet European standards.
The Ministry of Justice has announced that the building of a state prison might begin in the spring of 2010, but it still “does not want to become involved in any predictionsâ€.
The State Court, meanwhile, warns that the non-existence of a state-level facility is “a huge problem†in terms of security and cost-efficiency, claiming that such a prison, “would relieve the existing facilities, improving living conditions in those same facilitiesâ€.
Due to the non-existence of a state-level prison, those sentenced or ordered into custody by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina are currently sent to entity-level penal and correctional facilities, where competent officials say conditions are poor.
A Report by the Council of Europe in 2007 said that prisons in Bosnia were already filled to more than 100 per cent capacity, and conditions were “minimalâ€, judged by the recommendations of the European Committee for Prevention of Torture and Inhumane Treatment.
When the State Court began its work 2004, a detention unit was established. This unit is the only facility whose level of security is in line with the standards defined in the European Prison Regulations and laws of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, this Unit is only a partial solution to the problem, as it can only hold 21 prisoners. The Ministry of Justice says a total of 78 suspects or indictees have been ordered into custody by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
To cope with the overload, the Ministry of Justice pays entity-level institutions 40 KM (about 29 Euros) per day to accommodate each of the remaining 57 detainees and 85 convicts.
For years on, only a wall is complete:
The idea and initial plans for building a Facility for Execution of Criminal Sanctions, Detention and Other Measures in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to which people would be sent as per orders issued by the State Court, emerged at the very beginning of the work of that institution.
At that time the Ministry of Justice, the initiator and main leader of this project, said that once the War Crimes and Organized Crime Sections of the Court started working, “the capability of entity facilities for execution of sanctions of people deprived of liberty and maintenance of safe environment would be brought into questionâ€.
Four years on, although the State Court has sentenced 85 people by second-instance verdicts, 35 for war crimes, there is still no special facility to which they can be sent. The only activity in this field completed to date is a wall, built to surround the future prison, which will be located in eastern Ilidza, 10 kilometers from the State Court.
“At present we have cleaned up and partially surrounded the locality of future prison,†Srdjan Arnaut, deputy justice minister, said.
“What we have begun here is an indicator of good will of Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement the investment but objectively speaking, we are still awaiting the entire amount [of money] to be provided for this investment.â€
Arnaut says that about 1.7 million KM (about 850,000 Euros) have been invested in prison construction works, allocated from Bosnia’s state budget. The total cost of building the prison, which will have space for about 300 convicts and 50 detainees, will cost “about 20 million euro or a bit moreâ€, he added.
According to the original cost estimate, from 2005, the prison was supposed to cost about 16 million Euros. However, Arnaut said European Union standards had changed in the meantime.
“Multiple-prisoners cell are no longer an option,†he elaborated. “Individual cells will have to be built. The final requirement is to have one prisoner per cell.â€
As the deputy minister explained, foreign donors have secured some of the resources needed for the building of the prison. The remaining amount is expected to come from a loan from the European Development Bank.
“At this moment, we are conducting a full revision of the project; the European Development Bank set this as a precondition for approving the loan,†Arnaut told BIRN’s Justice Report.
“The loan is supposed to be approved in November, because, as they said, there are no points at issue. We are optimistic and we think we may issue an international tender for construction works in February 2010.â€
Nevertheless, the deputy minister says it is hard to “speculate†on the precise duration of construction, though he believes that “nothing will stop the construction company from working as fast as possible once all the resources have been providedâ€.
The State Court has awaited the state-level prison for years now. It says that the prison is “necessary†for the efficient work of the Court itself.
“The non-existence of the Facility for Execution of Criminal Sanction at state level represents a huge problem,†the Court said to BIRN’s Justice Report.
“People sentenced by the Court… are sent to entity-level facilities that are already overbooked. Considering that the State Court processes crimes that often then result in long-term imprisonment, a facility with a high level of security is necessary,†the Court added.
In early 2008, the President of the State Court, Meddzida Kreso, added that “the work of the State Court could be brought into question†if the facility was not built. “The existing prison system is bad. Besides, there is no room in the existing prisons for [new] convicts,†Kreso added.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina says the location of the new prison, only 10 kilometers from the Court, would cut transport costs. Currently detainees and convicts have to be transported to penal and correctional facilities all over Bosnia.
Poor conditions in entity jails:
While the building of a state-level prison is still pending, the Ministry of Justice pays the various entity jails 40 KM per day to hold detainees and convicts sentenced by the State Court.
Data from the Ministry of Justice suggest 163 people are now held in those facilities in the Federation and the Republika Srpska. Of this number, 85 are convicts and 78 are detainees. In total, the Ministry of Justice pays 6,500 KM a day, and nearly 200,000 KM a month for their accommodation.
The men are held in 14 penal and correctional facilities, eight in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and six in Republika Srpska.
Of the total number of detainees, 36 have been detained under orders issued by the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fourteen are waiting second-instance verdicts, while trials are underway against 22.
A Justice Ministry assessment of the situation in the penal and correctional facilities in the Federation, covering the period up to January 2009, said the capacities of these facilities “do not fully meet the standards determined by the Law on Execution of Criminal Sanctions and European Prison Regulationsâ€.
“In general, the number of prisoners is rising,†Entoni Seperic, spokesperson of the Ministry of Justice of the Federation, told BIRN’s Justice Report.
“This significantly aggravates and reduces the available prison capacities. The capacities of facilities in the Federation are overbooked by about 23 per cent and increasing.â€
The Federation Justice Ministry warns that the number of prisoners in relation to the number of guards has also continuously increased, having “an unfavorable effect on the level of security in those facilities.
“In general, we can say that the system of execution of criminal sanctions is outdated, burdened in many ways and is ready for thorough reform,†Seperic said.
Conditions in detention and prison facilities in Republika Srpska are no better.
“The living conditions and the level of standards of people deprived of their liberty are not at the required level, but we are investing efforts to improve them so they meet the relevant European standards,†Bosko Djukic, assistant Minister of Justice of Republika Srpska, said.
“Prisons in Bosnia and Herzegovina were traditionally built as dormitories. It is extremely difficult to maintain order and security in this type of prisons. Further on, it significantly increases the risk of violence and indiscipline.â€
The dormitory system is a major obstacle to adjusting the facilities to European prison regulations, which stipulate that prisoners should be alone in their cells at night.
For the time being, such conditions exist in the Detention Unit of the State Court, but its limited space, for only 21 detainees, is full.
“The Detention Unit of the State Court is some sort of a transitional prison. People stay there during the course of their trials. It is not used for convicts,†Arnaut explained.
Situation stable, despite problems:
Despite the problems facing the entity-level facilities, no major problems have been recorded in the prisons as far as war-crime indictees or convicts are concerned. With the exception of one person, none has escaped, either.
The exception was Radovan Stankovic, sentenced under a first-instance verdict by the State Court to 20 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed in Foca.
After being sent to the Penal and Correctional Facility in Foca in April 2007, he escaped on May 25, 2007 while being transported to a medical institution for examination.
Although the Ministry of Justice and State Court do not draw a link between the escape and the conditions in prisons, they say that the planned state prison will certainly offer higher security.
“The escape of Radovan Stankovic cannot be directly associated with the prison system,†the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina told Justice Report.
“Stankovic managed to escape thanks to a detailed and organized plan, but we believe the non-existence of a prison with high security certainly contributed to the execution of that plan.â€
Awaiting the building of a state-level prison, one person has already served his sentence for war crimes, pronounced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Abduladhim Maktouf, the first person sentenced for war crimes before the State Court, served his five-year sentence in the Penal and Correctional Facility in Zenica.
Maktouf was sentenced in April 2006 for helping members of “El Mujaheed†Unit, which was part of the Third Corps of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to unlawfully arrest, detain and kidnap five Croatian civilians in 1993.
Even if the building of the state prison does start in 2010, by that time, more State Court convicts may have served their sentences.
One is Mitar Rasevic, sentenced by a second-instance verdict to seven years’ imprisonment for crimes committed in the Penal and Correctional Facility in Foca, where more than 700 people were detained from 1992 to 1994.
Rasevic surrendered to the Hague Tribunal in August 2003. Three years later he was transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina for further processing.
Momcilo Gruban, sentenced by a second-instance verdict to serve seven years in jail for committing crimes in the detention camps in Prijedor, is in a similar situation. Gruban surrendered to the Hague Tribunal in May 2002. He was then held in the Detention Unit in Scheveningen with occasional breaks before being transferred to Bosnia in 2006 for further trial.
When pronouncing its verdict, the State Court factored the time already spent in the Detention Unit into the sentence.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina says that the non-existence of a state-level prison is not of “key importance†in terms of actually trying cases.
However, it maintains that the overbooked entity-level facilities and lack of adequate resources for their maintenance further complicate attempts to meet the high standards set by the law.
“The most important thing is to speed up the building of a state-level prison with high level security and capacities for about 350 people,†it said.
“In that way, the existing prisons could be made less congested. This would in turn improve the living conditions in all facilities in which people serve their criminal sanctions,†the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina noted.
Merima Husejnovic is BIRN – Justice Report jorunalsit. [email protected] Justice Report is weekly BIRN online publication.