Last Updated 4 November 2009
Selected Events From: 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007
3 November 2009: UN judges hold a hearing on how to continue the genocide trial of Radovan Karadzic if the former Bosnian Serb leader continues to boycott the case.
2 November 2009: Radovan Karadzic says he will appear before the tribunal the following day. He will argue for more time to prepare; one of his legal advisors said he would argue for 10 months to prepare. Judge O-Gon Kwon warned that Karadzic should attend the trial. Otherwise, counsel might be appointed for him.
29 October 2009: The ICTY hears an appeal on behalf of Johan Tarculovski, the only Macedonian sentenced to jail by the court. Tarculovski is looking to overturn the 12-year jail sentence handed down in July 2008. The ICTY found him guilty of war crimes committed while serving as a police commander during the 2001 Macedonian armed conflict. The ICTY is expected to rule on the appeal by early 2010.
27 October 2009: Prosecutors deliver their opening arguments in the Karadzic case. They played audio tapes for the court of Karadzic discussing the genocide. Karadzic continued his boycott of the proceedings.
27 October 2009: Biljana Plavsic arrives in Belgrade following her early release from a prison in Sweden, where she had been serving an 11-year sentence for war crimes. The ICTY decided last month that she should be set free, citing her good behavior. Under Swedish law, Plavsic was eligible for release after serving two-thirds of her prison term.
26 October 2009: Judge Patrick Robinson and Judge O-Gon Kwon are reelected to two-year terms as President and Vice President by the permanent judges of the ICTY.
24 October 2009: Tribunal President Patrick Robinson presents the ICTY’s sixteenth annual report before the UN General Assembly highlighting the Tribunal’s achievements and remaining challenges. In his address, President Robinson noted that the Tribunal expected to conclude all but one trial by early 2011. The one remaining case, that of Radovan Karadzic, will likely wrap up in early 2012.
16 October 2009: ICTY announces it will separate the cases against Mladic and Karadzic so that no court decisions on Karadzic will impact the Mladic case.
13 October 2009: Appeals Chamber rejects Karadzic's appeal of the decision on commencement of trial, meaning that the Karadzic trial will commence on 26 October 2009. Karadzic had requested more time to prepare his defense.
12 October 2009: Appeals Chamber dismisses Karadzic's appeal of the Trial Chamber's decision on an alleged cooperation agreement made with Richard Holbrooke. The Appeals Chamber found that “even if the alleged Agreement were proved, it would not limit the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, it would not otherwise be binding on the Tribunal and it would not trigger the doctrine of abuse of process.”
24 September 2009: Florence Hartman’s defense files notice of appeal. The defense alleges that Hartman was denied her right to a fair impartial trial and that there were over 120 legal and factual errors that amount to a miscarriage of justice.
23 September 2009: ICTY launches report concerning judicial sector capacity building and the needs of local courts in conducting war crimes cases within the former Yugoslavia. The report titled “Supporting the Transition Process: Lessons Learned and Best Practices in Knowledge Transfer,” is product of collaboration between the ICTY, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the UN Inter-regional Crime and Justice Research Institute.
23 September 2009: ICTY Outreach Programme launches educational curriculum in a Kosovo high school for 12th graders during the 2009-2010 academic year. The program focuses on raising awareness about the tribunal’s work.
23 September 2009: Prosecution in case of Radovan Karadzic refuses request of pre-trial judges to further reduce the indictment by decreasing the number of crime scenes and charges alleged. The indictment was previously reduced on the request of pre-trial judges in February 2009.
16 Septmber 2009: Croatian General Ante Gotovina’s defense rests his case. The trial moves to the defense of the second accused, Ivan Cermak.
14 September 2009: The trial of Mićo Stanišić and Stojan Župljanin, members of the Serbian police and security services, commences with an opening statement form the prosecution. Stanišić and Župljanin are charged with responsibility for crimes committed by police forces under their control in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April and December 1992. The alleged crimes include extermination, murder, deportation and torture of non-Serb civilians.
14 September 2009: The Specially Appointed Chamber convicts Florence Hartmann, former spokeswoman for the Office of the Prosecutor, of contempt of court for disclosing confidential information used in two Appeals Chamber decisions in the Milosevic trial. The Chamber found that Hartman knowingly violated a court order and handed down a fine of 7,000 Euros. The defense indicated that it may pursue an appeal within the ICTY Appeals Chamber and European Court of Human Rights.
7 September 2009: Bosnian Serb leader Momčilo Krajišnik is transferred to the United Kingdom to serve his 20-year sentence for crimes committed by subordinates against non-Serb civilians during the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
24 July 2009: Trial Chamber II convicts Vojislav Šešelj of contempt of the Tribunal and sentences him to 15 months imprisonment for disclosing the name and other personal details of protected witnesses in a book he authored.
23 July 2009: The Appeals Chamber reverses Astrit Haraqija’s conviction and affirms Bajrush Morina’s conviction and sentence for contempt of the Tribunal for intimidating a protected witness in the trial of the former Kosovo Albanian military leader Ramush Haradinaj and others.On 17 December 2008, Trial Chamber I found both Haraqija and Morina, ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, guilty of having knowingly and willfully interfered with the administration of justice by interfering with a protected witness in the Haradinaj et al. case.
20 July 2009: Trial Chamber III convicts Milan Lukić and Sredoje Lukić to life and 30 years’ imprisonment respectively for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in the eastern Bosnian town of Višegrad during the 1992-1995 conflict.
8 July 2009: The UN Security Council extends the terms of office for the judges serving at the ICTY. Permanent trial and ad litem judges are extended until 31 December 2010 or until the completion of the cases to which they are assigned, if sooner.
3 July 2009: The Appeals Chamber affirms the contempt of court conviction of former Bosnian Serb Army officer Dragan Jokić. Jokić was sentenced earlier this year to four months imprisonment for refusing to testify in the case of Popović and others.
1 July 2009: Prosecutor Serge Brammertz welcomes liaison prosecutors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia as they arrive in The Hague to work for the next six months with the staff in the Tribunal’s Office of the Prosecutor.
26 June 2009: Milan Martić, the former wartime political leader of Croatian Serbs, is transferred today to Estonia to serve his 35-year sentence for crimes committed against Croats and other non-Serbs in Croatia between 1991 and 1994.
24 June 2009: The Trial Chamber in the case of Momčilo Perišić, former Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, begins a seven-day site visit to Zagreb, Sarajevo, and Srebrenica. The Trial Chamber’s decision to conduct a site visit was taken sua sponte by the Chamber, which explained the visit would assist in understanding the facts at issue.
12 June 2009: Judge Patrick Robinson begins his first official visit to the region of the former Yugoslavia since being elected as the Tribunal’s President. He will be in the region from 12 to 17 June and plans to travel to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia.
5 June 2009: The trial of Jovica Stanisic, a former close aide to Serbian wartime leader Slobodan Milosević, and Franko Simatović, a former elite Serb forces commander, is scheduled to recommence with the opening statement of the Prosecution on Tuesday, 9 June 2009.
28 May 2009: The Tribunal launches the ICTY Manual on Developed Practices today. The publication aims to preserve the institution’s legacy and aid jurisdictions facing the responsibility of adjudicating international crimes. This is the first publication that provides a comprehensive description of the operating practices that have developed at the ICTY, including topics of investigation, judgment drafting, and management of the Detention Unit and legal aid policies.
13 May 2009: John Hocking is appointed as the new Registrar of the Tribunal. His appointment is effective 15 May 2009.
5 May 2009: The Appeals Chamber finds Veselin Šljivančanin, a former senior officer of the Yugoslav People’s Army, guilty of aiding and abetting the war crime of murdering prisoners of war after the fall of the Croatian town of Vukovar and confirms his guilt for aiding and abetting torture as a war crime, increasing his sentence from 5 to 17 years imprisonment. The Appeals Chamber also reaffirms the guilt of Šljivančanin’s superior, Mile Mrkšić, for several war crimes and upholds his 20 year sentence of imprisonment.
27 April 2009: The U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes, Clint Williamson, visited the Tribunal today and met with President Patrick Robinson, Prosecutor Serge Brammertz, and Acting Registrar John Hocking.
8 April 2009: The Tribunal’s Appeals Chamber orders the provisional release of Astrit Haraqija, the former Kosovo Minister for Culture, Youth, and Sport, from the Tribunal’s Detention Unit. Haraquija has completed the five month sentence imposed for contempt of court.
6 April 2009: The Tribunal’s public Court Records database is launched today, containing all Tribunal public court records from the first filing submitted in 1994 until today.
2 April 2009: State and War Crimes Prosecutors from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and the ICTY are meeting today and tomorrow in Brussels, Belgium. The primary goal of the conference is to further strengthen regional cooperation in the investigation and prosecution of war crimes cases. The conference also launches the “Joint European Commission and ICTY Training Project for National Prosecutors and Young Professionals from the former Yugoslavia.” This project aims to create an opportunity for legal professionals from the region of the former Yugoslavia to work with the Tribunal’s Office of the Prosecutor staff to further capacity building and knowledge transfer.
27 March 2009: The ICTY’s Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz is due to meet Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic on the second day of his trip to Belgrade. Brammertz arrived in Serbia on Thursday and met Serbian President Boris Tadic, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic and the President of the National Council for Hague Cooperation, Rasim Ljajic. As announced from the President's cabinet, during the meeting with Brammertz, Tadic said that the Serbian government and all of it's bodies fully cooperate with The Hague Tribunal. Tadic added that Serbia has so far extradited to The Hague 44 people indicted for war crimes and that it is completely aware of its legal obligation to extradite two more of them: Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic. Ljajic suggested that Serbian residents sentenced at The Hague serve their prison sentences in Serbia. Ljajic told a press conference that he thinks this idea could be accepted by The Hague Tribunal. “Unfortunately, there is one obstacle: the recommandation made in 1993 by UN General Secretary that all the convicted must not serve their sentences in the area of the former Yugoslavia,“ said Ljajic. He said Brammertz pointed out some of the problems that could appear if the idea got the go-ahead but he did show sympathy for it.
27 March 2009: Trial Chamber II convicts Dragan Jokić of contempt for refusing to testify in the trial of Popović and sentences him to four months in prison. The Chamber noted that Jokić’s refusal to testify keeps relevant information from coming to light and goes against the “interests of justice.” Jokić was previously convicted for aiding and abetting the extermination, murder, and persecution of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 and is currently serving his nine year sentence for those crimes.
27 March 2009: Kenyan authorities release the man that they had believed to be Ratko Mladic after confirmation that it was not him. Ratko Mladic is wanted by the ICTY for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his part in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.
26 March 2009: Kenyan authorities detain a man they believe to be Ratko Mladic, who is wanted by the ICTY for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his part in the Srebrenica massacre in 1995.
25 March 2009: After several attempts over six months, Ivan Jurasinovic, attorney for the Kovac family, manages to send a one million euro lawsuit to Radovan Karadzic at ICTY detention unit. ICTY indictee Radovan Karadzic, wartime President of Republika Srpska, who is held at the Detention Unit of the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, accepted the suit, filed by the Kovac family, requesting compensation to the amount of one million euros for having been deported from their home in Foca in 1992, said Ivan Jurasinovic. Besides Karadzic, the Kovac family sues Biljana Plavsic, Momcilo Krajisnik and Ratko Mladic, requesting compensation for the damage caused by the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Prosecution is charging Karadzic with a number of crimes committed throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, including genocide in Srebrenica and ten other municipalities. The indictment mentions Momcilo Krajisnik and Biljana Plavsic as his closest associates, who were all members of the General Command of the armed forces of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina as of 1992.
20 March 2009: At a status conference held before the Hague Tribunal Chamber Stojan Zupljanin says he wants to prepare his defence while at liberty. Stojan Zupljanin, who is charged before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, together with Mico Stanisic, with crimes against humanity and violation of the laws and customs of war, has asked the Court to allow him to "prepare" his defence "while at liberty". Since Zupljanin presented this request orally at a status conference, the Chamber advised him to file a motion following "appropriate procedures and channels". After having been on the run for nine years, Zupljanin was arrested in Serbia in June 2008. Stanisic surrendered in March 2005. The Prosecution charges the two indictees with participation in a joint criminal enterprise, as well as persecution, extermination, murder, torture and inhumane acts. Stanisic was Minister of the Interior of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Zupljanin was Chief of the Regional Safety Services Center in Banja Luka and internal affairs advisor to the RS President. In July 2008 Stanisic received permission to defend himself while at liberty. He therefore did not attend the status conference.
18 March 2009: Jadranko Prlic, a former official of the so-called Croatian community of Herzeg-Bosnia, who is on trial at The Hague, asks the Court, via his legal representative, to be temporarily released from custody until the verdict has been handed down. Prlic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoje Petkovic, Bruno Stojic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic are charged before the ICTY with participation in war crimes committed in Gornji Vakuf, Jablanica, Mostar, Ljubuski, Prozor, Capljina and Vares municipalities in the course of 1992 and 1993. Prlic's Defence based the temporary custody release motion on the fact that this represents the indictee's "fundamental human right". "Keeping Prlic unnecessarily in custody, even when there are factors that go in favour of his temporary release, is in contradiction with the presumption of innocence. At the same time it violates his right to a fair trial," the motion reads. It further argues that the time Prlic has spent in custody has been "unjustifiably long" and that this violates his human rights.
17 March 2009: The Appeals Chamber sentences Momčilo Krajišnik to 20 years’ imprisonment, reducing his original sentence of 27 years. Krajišnik had been convicted in 2006 of murder, extermination, persecution, deportation and forcible transfer of non-Serbs in the early 1990s. The Chamber upheld the guilty verdicts on the charges of deportation, forcible transfer and persecution, but reversed the convictions for murder and extermination. The Chamber found that the Trial Chamber had failed to identity when the murder and extermination became part of the goals of the joint criminal enterprise. The Chamber found that the gravity of the crimes he was still convicted of required a severe sentence.
12 March 2009: European Parliament votes in favor of a proposal to ask the UN Security Council to extend the mandate of ICTY by 2 years until 2010.
12 March 2009: Soldiers of the EU's peacekeeping mission, EUFOR, supported by NATO and local police, searches a house of a close associate of the war-time Bosnian Serb commander and war-crimes suspect, Ratko Mladic, for material that would help reveal his whereabouts. Around 4:00 am on Thursday, some 60 EUFOR soldiers started searching the house of Dusko Todic, a former military associate of Mladic, in the northwestern town of Banja Luka, in the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska. The raid was launched after a specific request made by the International War Crimes Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia, ICTY. The ICTY, EUFOR and NATO have been regularly searching for Mladic, the only high-level Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect who still remains in hiding a full 13 years after the war. According to different local and international officials, Mladic has been spending most of his time in Serbia lately.
4 March 2009: American Professor Charles Ingrao says research shows US military often encountered Hague tribunal’s top war-crimes indictee in 1996 but failed to arrest him because that was not then their policy. Purdue University History Professor Charles Ingrao says the US military saw Ratko Mladic at least 20 times in 1996 alone but the Pentagon was not then interested in capturing war crimes indictees in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The startling claim, one in a series of controversial claims concerning the role played by the United States and its allies in post-Dayton Bosnia, appears in a broad work of investigative research undertaken by 300 scholars from the Western Balkans and beyond. But, there is more, Ingrao says. On several other occasions the same unit escorted US Colonel John Batiste and a military policeman to Republika Srpska Army regimental headquarters on Mt Zepa for face-to-face meetings with Mladic, allegedly to negotiate his voluntary surrender.
3 March 2009: Trial Chamber III enters a plea of “not guilty” on the behalf of Radovan Karadžić after he refused to enter a plea based on the latest amended indictment. Karadžić, a former Bosnia Serb political leader, is facing eleven charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his part in crimes including the killing of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo in 1992.
2 March 2009: The Initial Appearance in the contempt of court case of Vojislav Šešelj is scheduled for 6 March 2009 at 14:30 in Courtroom I, before Judge Carmel Agius. Šešelj, the leader of the Serb Radical Party currently standing trial at the Tribunal for alleged crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia between 1991 and 1994, is accused of disclosing the name and other personal details of three protected witnesses. Šešelj is alleged to have authored a book in which the information was published, along with other material such as excerpts of the written statement of one of these witnesses, the disclosure of which was prohibited. Trial Chamber II issued its Order in lieu of an Indictment on 21 January 2009.
2 March 2009: The Los Angeles Times reports that the trusted chief of Slobodan Milosevic's intelligence service,Jovica Stanisic, was in fact working with the CIA for eight years. The Los Angeles Times wrote on Sunday that Jovica Stanisic, "accused of setting up genocidal death squads," was "a valuable source for the CIA. An agency veteran even says that he also 'did a whole lot of good.'" Facing a war crimes trial at the Hague Tribunal, Stanisichas called in a favour with his American allies, the paper says. "In an exceedingly rare move, the CIA has submitted a classified document to the court that listsStanisic's contributions and attests to his helpful role." The newspaper says that the document remains sealed, but that its contents were described by sources to its reporter. The report claims that Stanisic was recruited by CIA in Belgrade in 1992, by the now-retired William Lofgren.
27 February 2009: The prosecution in the case against Radovan Karadžić issues a final amended indictment. Karadžić will be asked to enter a plea on March 3. Karadžić, a former Bosnia Serb political leader, is facing eleven charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his part in crimes including the killing of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo in 1992.
26 February 2009: Former Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister, Nikola Šainović, Yugoslav Army (VJ) General, Nebojša Pavković and Serbian police General Sreten Lukić, former high-ranking Yugoslav and Serbian political, military, and police officials, are convicted by Trial Chamber III of the Tribunal for crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo in 1999. Each are sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment for crimes against humanity and violation of the laws or customs of war. Yugoslav Army General, Vladimir Lazarević and Chief of the General Staff, Dragoljub Ojdanić were found guilty of aiding and abetting the commission of a number of charges of deportation and forcible transfer of the ethnic Albanian population of Kosovo and each sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. Milan Milutinović, the former President of Serbia, was acquitted of all charges.
26 February 2009: The Trial Chamber asks the prosecution in the case against Radovan Karadžić to file an amended indictment after agreeing to reconsider one of the murder charges that it had originally refused to add to the indictment. On February 20, the prosecution had asked the Chamber to reconsider the charge because it had the evidence for it but had failed to give it to the judge because of a clerical error. Karadžić, a former Bosnia Serb political leader, is facing eleven charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his part in crimes including the killing of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo in 1992.
20 February 2009: Pavle Strugar, a former General of the Yugoslav People’s Army convicted of crimes in the Croatian coastal town of Dubrovnik in 1991 and sentenced to seven and a half years’ imprisonment, is released having been in the Tribunal’s detention facility for more than two-thirds of his sentence. The Tribunal’s Statute allows for convicted persons to apply for pardon, commutation of sentence or early release and states that the President of the Tribunal will determine whether to grant such requests. The President considered several factors when evaluating Strugar’s application including the gravity of crimes for which he was convicted, previous practice and the prisoner’s demonstration of rehabilitation, as well as Strugar’s “deteriorating medical condition.”
20 February 2009: The prosecution in the case against Radovan Karadžić asks the Trial Chamber to reconsider its decision on the amended indictment. On 16 February, the Trial Chamber approved most of the amended indictment but denied the request to add three counts of murder. The prosecution wants one of the charges reinstated because they have the evidence necessary for it, but failed to give it to the judge because of a clerical error. As a result Karadžić was not asked to enter a plea on the amended indictment, but was given five days to respond to the prosecution’s request. Karadžić, a former Bosnia Serb political leader, is facing eleven charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his part in crimes including the killing of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo in 1992.
16 February 2009: Serbia has more reasons now to be optimistic regarding the arrest of both remaining war crimes fugitives than a few months ago, said Rasim Ljajic, the country’s point man for cooperation with the Hague war crimes court. "It is more likely Serbia will extradite both Goran Hadzic and Mladic than the Netherlands will give up its pressure," Ljajic said in an interview to Serbian daily Blic. The Netherlands, where the U.N. war crimes tribunal is based, has said it will block Serbia’s EU path until all war crime suspects are handed over to The Hague. Bosnian Serb wartime army commander Mladic has been indicted for genocide in the 1992-95 Bosnian war and Hadzic, a Croatian Serb wartime leader, for crimes against humanity committed between 1991 and 1993 period during the war in Croatia. Ljajic could not say how much closer they were to arresting both individuals.
16 February 2009: Trial Chamber III partially approves the amended indictment against Radovan Karadžić. The Prosecution had motioned in September 2008 to amend the indictment by reducing the number of municipalities where Karadžić allegedly committed crimes, removing the charge for complicity in genocide and the charge for breach of the Geneva Convention, and adding three counts of murder. The ICTY granted the reduction in municipalities but denied the request on the three counts of murder. Karadžić, a former Bosnia Serb political leader, is facing eleven charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his part in crimes including the killing of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo in 1992.
11 February 2009: ICTY indefinitely suspends the trial of Vojislav Šešelj because of fears of witness intimidation. Šešelj is the leader of the Serbian Radical Party and is also charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the ethnic cleansing in Serbia between August 1991 and September 1993.
10 February 2009: Bosnia's EU peacekeeping force, supported by NATO and local police, carried out two raids on Tuesdaymorning on homes belonging to relatives of Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic, the most high-profile war crimes suspect from the 1992-95 war still on the run. The operation was carried out in the suburbs of eastern Sarajevo, in the Serb-dominated Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, where EUFOR troops raided homes of Milica Avram, Mladic’s sister, and Radinka Mladic, his sister-in law, EUFOR said in a statement.
10 February 2009: ICTY orders the provisional release of Bajrush Morina, the aide of the former Kosovo Culture Minister after serving three months in the ICTY Detention Unit. Both the Prosecution and Defense have appealed the release. Morina was convicted of contempt of court by the ICTY on December 17, 2008 and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for interfering with a witness whose identity was protected by trying to convince his not to testify in the trial against Ramush Haradinaj, a leader of the former Kosovo Liberation Army.
9 February 2009: ICTY grants early release to Vladimir Santic after giving him credit for time served since October 1997. Santic is a former member of the HVO, the Croation Defense Council, and commanded part of the military police of the HVO. In January 2000, he was convicted of crimes against humanity for persecuting Bosnian Muslims between October 1992 and April 1993 and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He appealed the decision and the Appeals Chamber reduced his sentence to 18 years. He was transferred to Spain to serve out his term in April 2002.
6 February 2009: The United States has for the first time acknowledged Serbia’s efforts to arrest the remaining two war crime fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, and hand them over to the United Nations court in The Hague, said Rasim Ljajic, Serbia's point man for cooperation with the Tribunal. After meeting the U.S. Ambassador for war crimes issues Clint Williamson at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington earlier this week, Ljajic said he believed Serbia had "absolute support" for its efforts.
3 February 2009: The trial of Florence Hartmann is postponed until further notice due to a Defense motion calling for the disqualification of two members of the special chamber and of a senior legal officer in charge of the case. The trial was supposed to start on February 5. Hartmann is charged with contempt for allegedly releasing confidential rulings in Slobodan Milosevic case when she was the spokeswoman for the chief ICTY prosecutor.
29 January 2009: Radovan Karadžić requests that the ICTY shorten his indictment to have a quicker trial. Karadžić says that the indictment covers such a wide range of issues that it will take a long time to prepare for the trial and to actually hold the trial. He suggests that the Trial Chamber only allow some of the proposed amendments to the indictment at this time and reserve judgment on the others until after the final judgment. Karadžić, a former Bosnia Serb political leader, is facing eleven charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his part in crimes including the killing of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo in 1992.
27 January 2009: ICTY begins trial of Vlastimir Djordjevic, the former the Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs and Head of the Department for Public Safety. He is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes committed through the deportation, murder and racial persecution of Kosovo Albanians in 1999 when he commanded Serb police units in Kosovo. Djordjevic pled not guilty to the charges. His trial is the last case about crimes in Kosovo to be held at the ICTY.
22 January 2009: ICTY Trial Chamber charges Vojislav Šešelj with contempt of court for disclosing in a book the names and other information about three witnesses who identities were ordered to be withheld from the public. Šešelj is the leader of the Serbian Radical Party and is also charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the ethnic cleansing in Serbia between August 1991 and September 1993.
15 January 2009: Stanislav Galić, a former senior Bosnian Serb army commander, is transferred from the ICTY to Germany to serve his life sentence. In 2003, Galić was convicted of murder, inhumane acts and acts of violence against the people of Sarjevo that he committed from 1992 to 1994, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In November 2006, the Appeals Chamber changed the sentence to life imprisonment, finding that the Trial Chamber had underestimated the severity of Galić’s acts.
17 December 2008: ICTY Trial Chamber rules that there was not a valid immunity deal between Radovan Karadžić and Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the UN. However, the Chamber requires that the prosecution turn over any notes, agreements, or recordings about the immunity deal to Karadžić. In August 2008, Karadžić alleged that in 1996 Holbrooke promised him immunity on behalf of the UN Security Council if he would give up power. Karadžić, a former Bosnia Serb political leader, is facing eleven charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for his part in crimes including the killing of Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 and the siege of Sarajevo in 1992.
17 December 2008: Astrit Haraqija, former Kosovo Culture Minister, and Bajrush Morina, his aide, are convicted of contempt of court by the ICTY and are sentenced to five and three months’ imprisonment, respectively. They were found guilty of interfering with a witness whose identity was protected by trying to convince him not to testify in the trial against Ramush Haradinaj, a leader of the former Kosovo Liberation Army.
5 November 2008: Radovan Karadzic refuses to answer some questions as a witness in the appeals hearing for Momcilo Krajisnik based on the grounds that his testimony could be harmful to his own case. Krajisnik is appealing a 1994 conviction for war crimes related to crimes committed against non-Serbs.
4 November 2008: Judge Patrick Robinson from Jamaica is elected president of the ICTY and Judge O-Gon Kwan from South Korea is elected vice-president. The appointments will become effective on 17 November 2008.
31 October 2008: An ICTY judge schedules a new plea hearing for Florence Hartmann for November 14.
28 October 2008: ICTY Judge Iain Bonomy gives Radovan Karadzic 14 days to respond to the prosecution’s motion to amend the indictment against him. The 14 days will begin when the prosecution provides Karadzic with the material that supports its motion. Karadzic is currently charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
27 October 2008: Florence Hartmann declines to enter a plea on two counts of contempt and deferred her plea for 30 days. Hartmann is alleged to have released confidential rulings in Slobodan Milosevic case when she was the spokeswoman for the chief ICTY prosecutor.
8 October 2008: Appeals Chamber reaffirms the Trial Chamber’s judgment against Milan Martić, the former political leader of Croatian Serbs, for sixteen counts of crimes committed against Croats and other non-Serbs in Croatia between 1991 and 1995. Martić’s 35-year prison sentence was also upheld by the Appeals Chamber.
2 October 2008: The trial of former Chief of General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, Momčilo Perišić, commences. Perišić is the most senior officer of the Yugoslav Army to go on trial for crimes committed during the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. He is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, inhumane acts and attacks on civilians committed between 1993 and 1995 in Sarajevo, Srebrenica and Zagreb.
24 September 2008: A pre-trial conference in Momcilo Perisic's case is held at ICTY. Perisic was the most senior officer in the Yugoslav army and is charged with crimes against humanity and other crimes. The trial start has been delayed until October 1, 2008.
23 September 2008: The Trial Chamber of the ICTY grants the Prosecution's motion to join Stojan Zuplijanin's and Mico Stanisic's cases. Zuplijanin was in command of the Regional Security Services Centre of Banja Luka and in that capacity took part in the hostilities against and destruction of the Muslim and Bosnian Croat communities in the Autonomous Region of Krajina. He was arrested and transferred to the ICTY in June 2008 and charged in July with genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
22 September 2008: Prosecutor for the ICTY submits a motion to amend the first amended indictment against Radovan Karadžić. The amended indictment restructures the eleven charges against Karadžić. The genocide count is split into two, one for the 1992 campaign of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and one for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. However, Karadžić is no longer charged with complicity in genocide nor with breaches of the Geneva Conventions. The number of municipalities where he allegedly committed crimes is reduced from 41 to 27. The Prosecutor says this will hopefully speed up the trail. The first amended indictment was filed in 2000.
18 September 2008: Poland enters into an agreement on enforcement of sentences with the ICTY, which allows for persons convicted before the Tribunal to serve their sentences in its prisons.
17 September 2008: At a pre-trial status conference, Radovan Karadžić claimed that former U.S. diplomat, Richard Holbrooke, promised him immunity from prosecution in return for abdicating his seat as President of Republika Srpska. Karadžić further asserted that Holbrooke was acting on behalf of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and not only on behalf of the U.S. Judge Bonomy of the Tribunal is consideringKaradžić's assertions to determine if an alleged indemnity deal would influence Karadžić's prosecution.
15 September 2008: Trial Chamber sentences Rasim Delić to three years imprisonment for crimes committed by the El Mujahed Detachment of the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina against captive Bosnian Serb soldiers during the 1992-1995 conflict in the Balkan state.
11 September 2008: Trial Chamber III finds Ljubiša Petković guilty of contempt of the Tribunal and sentences him to four months imprisonment in connection with his failure to comply with a subpoena ordering him to appear as a Chamber witness in the case of Vojislav Šešelj on 13 May 2008.
27 August 2008: Trial Chamber issues an Order in lieu of an indictment against Florence Hartmann, former spokesperson for the Prosecutor of the Tribunal, on two counts of contempt of the Tribunal. Hartmann is alleged to have knowingly disclosed information relating to confidential decisions of the Tribunal’s Appeals Chamber in the case of Slobodan Milošević.
30 July 2008: Radovan Karadžić is transferred to the Tribunal’s custody, after having been at large for more than 13 years.
24 July 2008: Trial Chamber I convicts Kosovo journalist Baton Haxhiu of contempt of the Tribunal and fines him 7,000 euros.
21 July 2008: Radovan Karadžić, the war-time President of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is arrested in Serbia. The ICTY first indicted Karadžić in July 1995, and he had been a fugitive from justice for the past 13 years.
17 July 2008: Appeals Chamber issues Judgment in Strugar case, holding the former Yugoslav People’s Army General Pavle Strugar guilty of two additional counts: the crime of devastation not justified by military necessity and the crime of unlawful attacks on civilian objects in Croatia’s coastal town of Dubrovnik in 1991. The Chamber also extended Strugar’s criminal responsibility for his failure to prevent the shelling of the Old Town. However, in consideration of Strugar’s deteriorating health, the Appeals Chamber reduced his sentence to seven and a half years’ imprisonment.
10 July 2008: Trial Chamber II sentences Johan Tarčulovski to 12 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed against ethnic Albanians in village of Ljuboten, Macedonia on 12 August 2001, while acquitting his co-accused, the former Macedonian Interior Minister, Ljube Boškoski, of all charges. The case is the only one relating to the Macedonian conflict heard by the ICTY.
3 July 2008: Appeals Chamber acquits Naser Orić, a former commander of Bosnian Muslim forces in and around Srebrenica, of crimes committed during the 1992-1995 conflict. The Trial Chamber had found that Orić was guilty of failing to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the murder and cruel treatment of a number of Bosnian Serbs held in and around the Srebrenica Police Station between 27 December 1992 and 20 March 1993. However, the Appeals Chamber reversed on the grounds that the Trial Chamber failed to make all of the findings necessary to convict a person for command responsibility underhe Tribunal’s Statute.
30 June 2008: Pre-Trial Judge warns Zdravko Tolimir that further obstruction to the proper conduct of proceedings would result in an order being issued for the appointment of defence counsel to represent Tolimir.
21 June 2008: Stojan Župljanin is transferred to the Tribunal’s custody, after evading justice for more than eight years. He was arrested in Serbia on 11 June. Župljanin, the most senior police officer in the so-called Autonomous Region of Krajina (ARK) in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 conflict and later an advisor to Radovan Karadžić, has been charged with involvement in a campaign to eliminate and permanently remove Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from the area between April and December 1992.
28 May 2008: Trial Chamber III lifts confidentiality from order in lieu of an indictment for contempt of the Tribunal against Ljubiša Petković, who failed to answer a subpoena to appear as a witness in the case against Vojislav Šešelj.
20 May 2008: Trial Chamber I issues order lifting confidentiality of an indictment against Baton Haxhiu, a journalist in Kosovo, who is charged with contempt of the Tribunal in connection with the trial of Ramush Haradinaj and others.
16 May 2008: Appeals Chamber grants Jovica Stanišić’s request to adjourn proceedings due to his health condition for a period of at least three months in the case against him and Franko Simatović.
14 May 2008: Haradin Bala is transferred to France to serve his sentence of 13 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed against Serb and Kosovo Albanian civilians in the Kosovo Liberation Army-run Lapušnik/Llapushnik prison camp between May and July 1998.
9 May 2008: Vinko Martinović is transferred to Italy to serve his sentence of 18 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims in the Mostar area of Bosnia and Herzegovina from April 1993 to January 1994.
25 April 2008: Trial Chamber I issues order lifting the confidentiality of an indictment against Astrit Haraqija and Bajrush Morina, each charged with contempt of the Tribunal based on allegations that they attempted to persuade a witness against testifying in the trial of Ramush Haradinaj and others.
24 April 2008: Mladen Naletilić is transferred to Italy to serve his sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment for crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims in the Mostar area of Bosnia and Herzegovina from April 1993 to January 1994.
22 April 2008: Appeals Chamber issues Judgment in case against Enver Hadžihasanović and Amir Kubura, both former senior officials in the Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted as superiors for crimes committed by their subordinates in central Bosnia in 1993. The Appeals Chamber upholds the Trial Chamber’s convictions in part, but also grants the defendants’ appeals in part, reducing their sentences to three years and six months of imprisonment for Hadžihasanović and two years’ imprisonment for Kubura.
9 April 2008: Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović’s trial will start on Monday, 14 April, now that Stanišić is considered to be fit for trial. The trial has been repeatedly delayed due to his ill health, but in consideration of the fact that his co-accused has a right to a “fair and expeditious trial,” the Chamber has set up a video conference for Stanišić to follow the trial should he be unable to attend.
7 April 2008: Nikola Šainović’s temporary provisional release, granted on 4 April, is modified since his mother died before he left the Detention Unit. The release is modified to allow him to return instead for her funeral.
7 April 2008: Slovakia enters into an agreement with the Tribunal to enforce its sentences, which will allow persons convicted by the Tribunal to serve their sentences in Slovakia.
4 April 2008: Nikola Šainović is granted temporary provisional release to return to Serbia to visit his sick mother. Šainović was Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and he is on trial with five others for allegedly participating in a campaign of terror and violence against Kosovo Albanians and other non-Serbs in Kosovo in 1999.
3 April 2008: In the case of Haradinaj et al., the Trial Chamber acquits Ramush Haradinaj and Idriz Balaj of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo in 1998. The Chamber’s decision is largely based on evidentiary problems in concluding beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused participated in joint criminal enterprise to commit the alleged crimes. Lahi Brahimaj was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for individual criminal responsibility for cruel treatment and torture of two persons at the Kosovo Liberation Army’s headquarters.
14 March 2008: The Trial Chamber grants Nebojša Pavković provisional release subject to numerous restrictions on compassionate grounds in order to return to Serbia from 25 March to 2 April. Pavković was a former Commander and Chief of the General Staff in the Yugoslav army, who is on trial with five others for committing crimes against Kosovo Albanians and other non-Serbs.
11 March 2008: The Appeals Chamber overturns last month’s Trial Chamber decision that granted provisional release to the six accused in the Prlić, et al. case. The accused will, therefore, remain in detention during the break in proceedings. The Appeals Chamber based its decision on the insufficiency of the accused’s justifications for the provisional release.
10 March 2008: Judge Uldis Ķinis (Latvia) is sworn in as an ad litem judge for the Tribunal, bringing the total number of ad litem judges to sixteen.
7 March 2008: The Trial Chamber postpones the commencement of the trial of Jovica Stanišić and Franko Simatović from 10 March to 17 March at the request of the Prosecution. Stanišić and Simatović, high level officials of the Serbian Secret Service, are accused of organizing and directing the murder, prosecution, and deportation of non-Serbs during the 1992-95 conflict.
5 March 2008: ICTY representatives and spokespersons meet with Croatian media in Zagreb as part of the Tribunal’s Outreach program. The press conference provides an opportunity to inform the media of achievements and upcoming trials of the Tribunal.
4 March 2008: Radoslav Brđanin, a former Serb political leader, is transferred to Denmark to serve his thirty year sentence for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against non-Serbs during the 1992-95 conflict.
3 March 2008: Three ad litem judges, Pedro R. David (Argentina), Elizabeth Gwaunza (Zimbabwe) and Michele Picard (France), are sworn in before the Tribunal in order to help increase the ICTY’s efficiency. Two new trials will start this month which will bring the number of concurrent trials to eight, an all-time high.
27 February 2008: Dragan Zelenović, a former Bosnian Serb soldier, is transferred to Belgium to serve his fifteen year sentence for the crimes against humanity of torturing and raping women and girls in the town of Foča in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.
20 February 2008: UN Security Council adopts Resolution 1800, authorizing a temporary increase in the number of ad litem judges sitting in cases before the Tribunal, enabling greater efficiency and the commencement of additional trials. The decision means that the number of ad litem judges appointed to the Tribunal may be increased from 12 up to a maximum of 16 during the year 2008.
11 February 2008: Estonia signs enforcement of sentences agreement.
25 January 2008: Vidoje Blagojevic, a former Bosnian Serb Army commander in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, is transferred to Norway to serve his sentence of 15 years prison sentence for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide. On 17 January 2005, the Trial Chamber sentenced him to 18 years, but the Appeals Chamber reduced that sentence to 15 years on 9 May 2007 after finding that the Trial Chamber had erred in finding Blagojevic guilty of complicity to commit genocide.
23 January 2008: Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, receives death threats from an unnamed “Serb group” from the United States due to his involvement in pursuing the four remaining war crimes fugitives that have been indicted by the ICTY.
23 January 2008: The ICTY returns four cases involving crimes committed by ethnic Albanian guerillas to the jurisdiction of Macedonian courts. The cases, stemming from the armed conflict in 2001, were initially transferred to the Hague in 2002.