Trbić could escape like Đukić, it would be a new slap in the face for the victims!

A group of United Nations human rights experts expressed concern over the release of Milorad Trbić, previously sentenced to 30 years in prison for committing genocide in Srebrenica, because the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina overturned the verdict. As explained, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina should have used the law of the former Yugoslavia instead of the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, thereby violating the appellant's rights under the European Convention, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

In earlier cases, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina suspended the execution of sentences and released convicts because there was no legal basis for their further detention or ordering custody.

It was precisely this that the UN experts warned about, stating that the case of Novak Đukić could be repeated, who was released in the same way, then fled to Serbia and has been unavailable to the Bosnian judiciary since July.

We remind you that in January 2011, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina finally convicted Trbić for, as assistant chief of security of the Zvornik Brigade of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS), participating from July 10 to November 30 in the arrest, detention, executions, and burial and concealment of bodies of Bosniaks from Srebrenica.

The trial chamber concluded that Trbić from July 12 to 16, 1995, participated in or assisted in the murders of men from Srebrenica at various locations in the Zvornik area – Kula-grad, Branjevo, the Cultural Center in Pilica, schools in Orahovac, Ročević, and Petkovci.

Trbić has been in custody since April 2005, when he surrendered to the Hague Tribunal. The "Trbić" case was forwarded to Bosnia and Herzegovina for further processing in 2007.

- The Constitutional Court has overturned more than a dozen other verdicts for war crimes and aiding in the commission of genocide in the past year, following a very questionable legal interpretation of the European Court of Human Rights in the Maktouf and Damjanović judgment – these experts state.

They also said that all received lower sentences in the retrials.

- People convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other serious criminal offenses, including torture and enforced disappearances, whose guilt is not in question, should not be released during retrial, and the sentence should be commensurate with the severity of the criminal offense – the UN experts are explicit.

As they state, such decisions are a slap in the face for the victims and pose serious challenges regarding the protection of victims of violence, re-victimization, and intimidation. They call on the authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina to protect victims, ensure respect for their right to truth and justice, and adopt a comprehensive transitional justice strategy, writes the Patria agency (NAP).