Belgrade Higher Court's sentences for Serb reservist policemen Jovo Jandric and Slobodan Pekez for a mass execution in Bosnia’s Jajce area in 1992 were disturbingly lenient, the Humanitarian Law Centre said.
Aida Trepanic Hebib, December 19, 2024
Belgrade Higher Court. Photo: BIRN.
The Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade, an NGO dealing with transitional justice, has criticised a Belgrade Higher Court verdict that sentenced Jovo Jandric to 13 years’ prison and Slobodan Perkez to 10 for the mass killing of 23 villagers in Bosnia in 1992, including four minors and ten women.
The HLC noted that, while explaining the verdict, presiding judge Bojan Misic had emphasised that “the time that had passed since the crime happened” was a factor in determining the sentences, as was the age of the accused; Jandric is now 70 and Pekez, 67.
The court also said it took into consideration earlier sentences imposed for the same crime by the state court in Bosnia and Herzegovina, “which are within these ranges”.
Jovana Kolaric, the HLC’s project coordinator, called the sentences low in relation to established facts, and inconsistent with the court’s own previous practice.
She recalled that the prosecution in its closing argument proposed sentences of 20 and 12 years respectively.
“This is the first time that the court has cited the practice of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in determining sentences, yet the sentences deviated from its own prior practice,” Kolaric observed.
Kolaric also said it is not normal practice in war-crimes proceedings to consider the passage of time a mitigating circumstance, both due to the nature and severity of these crimes and because the law stipulates that such acts do not expire for time-related reasons.
“The age of the defendants [also] cannot be of importance for the length of the sentence, especially since the defendants were 38 and 35 at the time of the crime, so they were adults and mature people, aware of their actions,” she added.
According to the indictment, on September 10, 1992, Jovo Jandric and Slobodan Pekez, both Bosnian Serb reservist police officers, together with eight others, gathered local civilians from the villages of Ljoljici and Cerkazovici in Bosnia’s central Jajce municipality and first beat them.
At a place called Draganovac they ordered the villagers to hand over all their valuables and, at a place called Tisovac, ordered them to line up along the edge of a precipice. When they did so, they opened fire and killed 23 of them.
Victims included men, women and children. The oldest was Faza Balesic, born in 1918. The youngest was nine-year-old Adis Zobic, born in 1983. Five people survived the massacre.
Jandric and Pekez pleaded not guilty on the start of their trial in Belgrade in October 2022.
The indictment noted that the crime took place after the funeral of a Bosnian Serb soldier, Rade Savic.
The HLC recalled that the court had determined that, “under threat of death, they confiscated all valuables from the civilians, physically assaulting them with rifles and kicking them, and then transported them to the location known as ‘Tisovac’. There, the civilians were ordered to line up next to a ravine, after which the perpetrators opened fire and killed 23 civilians.”
The first-instance verdict called the statements and testimonies of five survivors, including those of Mustafa Bajramovic and Fahrija Mutic, who testified before the High Court in Belgrade, clear and precise; they “saw, heard and experienced the actions of Jovo Jandric”, so the court had no doubts about his guilt.
Evidence of Pekez’s criminal responsibility “was provided by Jandric himself, who confirmed that Pekez was part of the armed group that executed the civilians,” the court announcement read.
Courts in Bosnia in 2009 sentenced Mirko Pekez (son of Mile) to 29 years in prison for the crime. [In 2014, this was reduced to 20 years]. Another Mirko Pekez (son of Spiro) was sentenced to 14 years and Milorad Savic to 21.
In 2013, Bosnia’s Constitutional Court released Pekez (son of Spiro) and Savic from prison because it said the wrong criminal code had been used at their trials. Proceedings against Jandric and Slobodan Pekez were then transferred to the Serbian judiciary.
This verdict can be appealed at the Belgrade Court of Appeal.
Copyright BIRN 2015