| Press Advisory |
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| (Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document) |
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The Hague, 7 December 2010
CT/MOW/PA413e
Šljivančanin Review Judgement to be Rendered on 8 December 2010
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| Veselin Šljivančanin |
The Appeals Chamber of the ICTY will deliver the review judgement in the case of Veselin Šljivančanin on Wednesday, 8 December 2010 at 15:30 in Courtroom I.
Šljivančanin is a former senior officer in the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA). In September 2007, Trial Chamber II found Šljivančanin guilty of aiding and abetting torture of non-Serb prisoners taken from Vukovar Hospital to a farm near Ovčara and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.
On 5 May 2009 the Appeals Chamber affirmed Šljivančanin’s conviction, but found that the sentence of five years’ imprisonment did not adequately reflect the level of gravity of the torture he aided and abetted. It also added a new conviction for aiding and abetting the murder of 194 prisoners. On these two bases, Šljivančanin’s sentence was increased to 17 years’ imprisonment.
On 28 January 2010, Šljivančanin applied for review of the Appeals Chamber judgement asserting the existence of a new fact which required reversal of his conviction for aiding and abetting murder as a violation of the laws or customs of war.
A hearing was held on 3 June 2010, after which the Appeals Chamber found that the new information provided by former JNA officer in Vukovar, Miodrag Panić, could, if proved, fundamentally alter the balance of evidence, and that to ignore it would lead to a miscarriage of justice. A Review Hearing was held on 12 October 2010. This was the first request for review of a judgement to be granted by an ICTY Chamber.
Since its establishment the Tribunal has indicted 161 persons for serious violations of humanitarian law committed on the territory of the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 2001. Proceedings against 125 have been concluded.
The judgement will be broadcast live in English, French and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian on the Tribunal’s website www.icty.org
An information sheet on the case can be found at:
http://www.icty.org/x/cases/mrksic/cis/en/cis_mrksic_al_en.pdf
The Appeals Chamber judgement summary is available at:
http://www.icty.org/x/cases/mrksic/acjug/en/appeals_judgement_summary_090505.pdf
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International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
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