| Press Release |
REGISTRY
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| (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) |
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The Hague, 25 January 2008
JP/MOW/1213e
Vidoje Blagojević transferred to Norway to serve sentence
Vidoje Blagojević, a former Bosnian Serb Army commander in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, was today transferred to Norway to serve his sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide.
On 17 January 2005, the Trial Chamber sentenced Blagojević to 18 years’ imprisonment for aiding and abetting the persecution, forcible transfer and murder of the Bosnian Muslim population of the Srebrenica enclave in July 1995. He was also found guilty of aiding and abetting the murders of Bosnian Muslim men and boys from the Srebrenica enclave who were taken to nearby town of Bratunac after the enclave fell. Blagojević was the commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army in the Bratunac and Zvornik municipalities in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina
On 9 May 2007, the Appeals Chamber found that the Trial Chamber had erred in finding Blagojević guilty of complicity to commit genocide and reduced his sentence to 15 years’ imprisonment.
A case information sheet providing an overview of the case can be found on the Tribunal’s website at
http://www.icty.org/x/cases/blagojevic_jokic/cis/en/cis_blagojevic_jokic_en.pdf
In earlier cases, the ICTY established that the mass executions of more than 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica by Bosnian Serb Army and Police constituted genocide.
To date ICTY has completed five trials related to the July 1995 Srebrenica genocide, one trial involving seven defendants is ongoing, while two more are awaiting trial and one other person indicted by the Tribunal for his alleged role in the Srebrenica crimes was transferred to the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina to stand trial. A further two, Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić, are on the run.
The Tribunal indicted 161 persons for serious violations of humanitarian law committed on the territory of former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. Proceedings against 111 persons have been concluded.
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Courtroom proceedings can be followed on the Tribunal’s website at www.un.org/icty.
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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