Former Manager of the Penal and Correctional Facility in Foca Milorad Krnojelac, who has been released, returns to his home in Foca.
The Hague Tribunal has issued a ruling releasing Milorad Krnojelac from prison in Italy due to his declining health and the fact that he has served more than half his sentence.
According to unofficial information obtained by BIRN – Justice Report, Krnojelac has already arrived in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
After his arrest in 1998, the wartime Manager of the Penal and Correctional Facility, KPD, in Foca, was sentenced, by a second-instance verdict pronounced by the Hague Tribunal in September 2003, to 15 years in prison for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war.
From April 1992 to August 1993 Krnojelac took part in the torture, persecution, cruel treatment and murder of Bosniaks.
The decision ordering his release, finds that Krnojelac has “behaved in a correct manner” during his time in prison in Italy. It further states that, according to Italian law, his sentence has been reduced by 810 days for this reason. The decision indicates that his physical condition is chareacterised by “aches and unpleasant sensations”.
According to Hague Tribunal data, 26 people have served their sentences for crimes committed during the course of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Most of these people have been given early release.
Up to the present, the Tribunal has sentenced the following people for crimes committed in Foca: Dragoljub Kunarac (28 years), Radomir Kovac (20 years), Zoran Vukovic (12 years), Biljana Plavsic (11 years), Dragan Zelenovic (15 years), and Momcilo Krajisnik (20 years).
The trial of Radovan Karadzic, wartime President of Republika Srpska, for crimes committed, among other places, in Foca is due to begin before the Hague Tribunal soon.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has rendered second-instance verdicts sentencing the following two people for crimes committed in Foca: Mitar Rasevic, former Commander of Guards, who was sentenced to seven years, and Savo Todovic, Deputy Manager of the Foca KPD, who was sentenced to 12 years and six months.
The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has also pronounced a second-instance verdict against Nedjo Samardzic, sentencing him to 24 years for crimes committed in Foca.
After being sentenced, by a second-instance verdict, to 20 years for crimes committed in Foca, Radovan Stankovic escaped from prison in May 2007.
Momcilo Mandic, former Minister of Justice of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was acquitted of all charges, by a first-instance verdict pronounced by the State Court, for crimes committed in the Foca KPD and other detention centers in the Sarajevo area.