FBiH Government supports introduction of penalty for genocide deniers: Three years in prison!

The FBiH Government gave a positive opinion at today's session on the proposal for legal sanctioning of the denial of genocide in Srebrenica, reports the BH News Agency Patria (NAP).

Namely, Prime Minister Nermin Nikšić and ministers today considered and supported the proposal to amend the Criminal Code of FBiH at a session in Mostar. This proposal was previously submitted by Jasmin Duvnjak, a delegate in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH. It is expected that this proposal will soon be in the adoption procedure.

The essence of the amendment to the Criminal Code relates to, as announced, Chapter XV of the Criminal Code (Crimes against the constitutional order), where a new paragraph is added to Article 163. Inciting national, racial, religious hatred, discord and intolerance, which reads:

“Whoever commits a criminal offense from paragraph (1) of this Article by publicly denying or justifying genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes established by a final decision of the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, or a domestic court, shall be punished with imprisonment from three months to three years”.

- Analysts' assessment is that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country where confronting the past is a political, not a civilizational issue. In BiH, there are still no laws according to which those who deny genocide or war crimes could be punished - it was announced from the Government. 

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a judgment in 2007 establishing that genocide was committed in Srebrenica in 1995.

Genocide in Srebrenica and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of BiH have also been established in the final and binding judgments of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as well as the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

At the same time, genocide has not been recognized in state institutions. The Council of Ministers of BiH does not declare a day of mourning on July 11, nor does it prohibit the denial of genocide, nor has it adopted any resolution marking this day, Patria reports.