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The Appeals Chamber judgement will be rendered in the case against Miroslav Bralo, former member of the anti-terrorist platoon of the HVO Military Police Battalion known as the "Jokers" on Monday, 2 April 2007 at 15:00 in courtroom I.
Bralo pleaded guilty to war crimes committed in and around the central Bosnian villages of Ahmići and Nadioci and was sentenced by the Trial Chamber to 20 years' imprisonment for his role in the multiple murder, rape, torture, unlawful confinement and inhumane treatment of Bosnian Muslim civilians, including a number of children, between January and mid-July 1993.
On 7 October 2005, Miroslav Bralo said the following in a handwritten statement of his personal apology before the Trial Chamber: "As a human being these are my crimes alone, committed against people whose voice I silenced in the massacre at Ahmići. I would like to apologize in the name of those who committed horrific crimes and are not alive any more. And to all those who had
to experience pain and suffering due to war and inhumane behavior in Ahmici".
In its judgement on 7 December 2005, the Trial Chamber concluded that Miroslav Bralo had committed a range of appalling crimes, which had to be condemned unequivocally. The judgement stated that there could be no excuse or justification for his actions, nor could his reasons for abusing so many people be fathomed.
On 5 January 2006, the defence appealed against the length of the sentence, claiming that the Trial Chamber did not sufficiently take into account specific mitigating circumstances. The Prosecution did not appeal.
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Full text of the Trial Chamber judgement can be found at
http://www.un.org/icty/bralo/trialc/judgement/index.htm
All proceedings can be followed on the Tribunal's website www.un.org/icty.
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