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Press Release . Communiqué de presse
(Exclusively for the use of the media. Not an official document)
CC/PIU/346-E
The Hague, 28 September 1998
"BOSANSKI SAMAC" CASE:
INITIAL APPEARANCE OF STEVAN TODOROVIC
ON WEDNESDAY 30 SEPTEMBER 1998
Following his detention on Sunday 27 September 1998 by members of the SFOR forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and his subsequent transfer to the Detention Unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), accused Stevan TODOROVIC will appear on Wednesday 30 September at 10 a.m. before Trial Chamber I, presided over by Judge Rodrigues.
The purpose of this hearing, called an "initial appearance hearing", is to ask the accused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty on each of the counts in the indictment against him. This hearing is public.
Counsel for the accused will be Mr Goran Neskovic, a lawyer from Doboj (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
The Prosecution bench will led by Mr Grant Niemann, Senior trial attorney, assisted by Ms Nancy Paterson, trial attorney.
Background on the indictment and the accused
THE INDICTMENT
Stevan TODOROVIC was indicted on 21 July 1995, together with five other individuals, for their alleged involvement in the "campaign of terror" undertaken in April 1992 against the Bosnian Croat and Muslim population of the municipality of Bosanski Samac by Serb military and political authorities from Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia
Two co-defendants are already in the ICTY’s custody: Miroslav Tadic and Simo Zaric. Milan Simic was provisionally released by a Trial Chamber for health reasons. He is required to return to the Hague and surrender himself into the custody of the Tribunal two weeks before the beginning of the trial. All three voluntarily surrendered in February 1998.
Slobodan Miljkovic, who headed the indictment, was shot dead in August 1998 in Serbia. The final individual on the indictment, Blagoje Simic, is still at large.
The indictment alleges that "in 1991, almost 17,000 Bosnian Croats and Muslims, of a total population of about 33,000 lived in the municipality of Bosanski Samac. By May 1995, fewer than 300 of the Bosnian Croat and Muslim residents remained".
THE ACCUSED
According to the indictment, "Stevan TODOROVIC, also known as Stiv, Stevo or Monstrum, born in 1957, from Donja Slatina, Bosanski Samac municipality, was appointed Chief of Police for Bosanski Samac after the 17 April military takeover. Prior to this, Stevan Todorovic was an executive in a bamboo furniture factory".
Background on the charges and the counts
The indictment charges Stevan TODOROVIC with alleged crimes committed in the police headquarters: one alleged killing (Anto Brandic), four cases of alleged beatings (Enver Ibralic, Hasan Ja{arevic, Omer Nalic and Father Jozo Pu{karic), and of allegedly forcing Witness A and Witness B to perfom sexual acts upon each other in the presence of several prisoners and guards (recognised
by Article 5(g) of the Tribunal’s Statute as rape, which includes other forms of sexual assault).
He is also charged with one case of alleged beating (Silvestar Antunovic) and one case of alleged torture (Omer Nalic) at the Bosanski Samac primary school.
Stevan TODOROVIC is charged with 15 counts in all: five counts of Grave Breaches of the Geneva Conventions (wilful killing, wilfully causing great suffering, inhumane treatment, torture); five counts of Violation of the Laws or Customs of War (murder, cruel treatment, humiliating and degrading treatment, torture) and five counts of Crimes against Humanity (murder, inhumane acts,
rape including other forms of sexual assault, torture).
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