veličina fonta

verzija za štampu

copyright

pošalji komentar

Palija: First verdict confirmed

Jadranko Palija

15 July 2008  Jadranko Palija has been sentenced to 28 years' imprisonment by a second instance verdict, for crimes in the Sanski Most area.

The Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed the first instance verdict against Jadranko Palija, sentencing him to a long-term imprisonment of 28 years. The verdict is final and the indictee does not have the right to file an appeal.

Palija was found guilty, as former member of the Military Police Squad with the Sixth Krajina Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, with having participated, in May 1992, in an attack on Begici hamlet, Kljevci village in Sanski Most municipality, and in taking away and separating civilians from those places.

Women and children were detained in a house, while Palija and other soldiers took the men across "Vinogradine" fields, where, as indicated in the indictment, he killed three civilians.

Palija was announced guilty of having participated in the murder of fourteen civilians in Sanski Most. He allegedly ordered them to take their clothes off and to jump from the bridge. As they fell, they were shot at. One person survived the shooting.

After the announcement of the first instance verdict, the Defence filed an appeal, which was completely rejected by the Appellate Chamber of the State Court.

Among other things, the Defence appealed the credibility of certain witnesses, whom the Chamber decided to trust, pointing to discrepancies between their statements given in the course of the investigation, shortly after the conflicts and during the course of the trial.

The Chamber concluded that, at war crime trials, testimonies are rather specific in terms of the circumstances, including the place and time, under which the initial statements were given.

The Chamber determined that the passage of time and post-war happenings affected "the memory process," which inevitably leads to "the loss or alteration of information".

The Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina applied the same approach as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, by taking into consideration, in evaluating statements given by witnesses, the fact that the referenced events happened a long time ago, which means that "it would not be realistic to expect the witnesses to recall all details, such as the exact date or hour when a certain action had happened."

In addition, the ICTY considers that statements given by witnesses in the courtroom cannot be identical to the ones given in the course of the investigations.

"It is completely natural that you can ask a witness, during the course of the criminal proceeding, some new questions and, in such cases, the witness may be able to recall some additional details, if specifically asked about them," the ICTY considers.

The Defence team appealed the pronounced legal sanction but the Appellate Chamber considers that the imprisonment sentence was correctly determined and "it is adequate considering the level of the indictee's responsibility."

The time Pajila spent under custody will be calculated towards his sentence. He was in custody from October 26 to November 2, 2006, when he was allowed to defend himself while at liberty, and from the pronouncement of a first instance verdict on November 28, 2007, when he was ordered into custody again, until present.