Judge Richard May confirms Indictment charging Slobodan Milosevic with Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Judge Richard May confirms Indictment charging Slobodan Milosevic with Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On 22 November 2001, Judge Richard May confirmed an indictment against Slobodan Milosevic, charging the accused with 29 counts for crimes committed between 1992 and 1995 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The indictment, which includes genocide and complicity to commit genocide, was submitted to Chambers by the Prosecutor of the ICTY, Carla Del Ponte on 12 November 2001.

According to the indictment, Slobodan Milosevic participated in a joint criminal enterprise, the purpose of which was the "forcible and permanent removal of the majority of non-Serbs […] from large areas of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina." The enterprise was carried out during a series of offensives by "Serb forces" against the non-Serb population.

It is alleged that during the take-over of territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina, thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats were killed and thousands more were imprisoned in over 50 detention facilities under inhumane conditions. Many more were forcibly transferred and deported from their homes. The total number of people expelled or imprisoned during the above period is estimated at over a quarter million.

The indictment further charges Milosevic with the execution of several thousand Bosnian Muslim men and boys after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995. They were executed at their place of capture or at locations where they were transported to for execution.

Before confirmation of the indictment on 22 November 2001, Judge May specified that he "requested the Prosecutor to submit additional material and also adjourned the review to give her the opportunity to modify the indictment."

Slobodan Milosevic is charged on the basis of his individual criminal responsibility under Article 7(1) of the Statute and superior criminal responsibility under Article 7(3) of the Statute with:

(1) Genocide or complicity in genocide under Article 4 of the Statute;

(2) Crimes against humanity involving persecution, extermination, murder, imprisonment, torture, deportation and inhumane acts (forcible transfers) under Article 5 of the Statute;

(3) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 involving wilful killing, unlawful confinement, torture, wilfully causing great suffering, unlawful deportation or transfer, and extensive destruction and appropriation of property under Article 2 of the Statute;

(4) Violations of the laws or customs of war involving inter alia attacks on civilians, unlawful destruction, plunder of property and cruel treatment under Article 3 of the Statute.
 

The indictment is available on the Internet site of the Tribunal

*****
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
For more information, please contact our Media Office in The Hague
Tel.: +31-70-512-8752; 512-5343; 512-5356 Fax: +31-70-512-5355 - Email: press [at] icty.org ()
Follow ICTY on Twitter and Youtube