Izvor: N1 televizija, 27.Jun.2018, 17:33   (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)

Prosecution appeals MICT ruling to transfer case to Serbia

The prosecutors of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT) have appealed on Wednesday the court ruling to hand the case against two ultra-nationalist supporters of a convicted war criminal to the Serbian judiciary, the MICT press release said.

The Hague-based MICT decided on June 12 that the proceedings against Serbian Radical Party (SRS) officials Petar Jojic and Vjerica Radeta would be conducted before a Serbian court.

The Wednesday >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << appeal said the judge should reverse its decision because “Serbia has chosen to flout the mandatory orders of the Tribunal for many years. In spite of repeated admonishment at the highest level, Serbia has failed for many years to comply with her obligations.”

The two were charged with contempt of court “for having threatened, intimidated, offered bribes to or otherwise interfered with witnesses” in the case against SRS leader Vojislav Seselj who was sentenced to 10 years for war crimes.

The decision to refer the case to the Serbian judiciary and issue international warrants for their arrest was taken by Judge Aydin Akay. The judge also ordered the MICT registrar to monitor the proceedings in Serbia.

The prosecutors want the Appeals Chamber to “quash the order referring the case against the respondents (Jokic & Radeta) to the authorities of Serbia for trial; order the case back to the Mechanism for trial; annul the order revoking the ICTY arrest warrants and re-issue the arrest warrants and order of transfer of the respondents to the authority of the Mechanism.”

The original arrest warrants were sent to Serbia's authorities in January 2015 and the War Crimes Panel of the Higher Court in Belgrade ruled in the spring of 2016 that there were no legal grounds to arrest and extradite them because Serbia's law on cooperation with the UN tribunal only covered people indicted for war crimes, not contempt of court.

International arrest warrants were issued in October 2016 following a tribunal ruling that the authorities in Belgrade refused to act on tribunal orders. The case was transferred to the MICT when the ICTY was shut down.

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