veličina fonta

verzija za štampu

copyright

pošalji komentar

Stankovic: Helpers Still Under Investigation

Radovan Stankovic

01 August 2008  A court in Trebinje has ordered guards suspected of having helped Radovan Stankovic escape from Foca prison to return to work.

By Merima Husejnovic in Sarajevo

The District Court in Trebinje on July 9 ordered the return to work of the guards of the Correctional Facility in Foca who are suspected of having helped Radovan Stankovic escape.
 

“As per the legally-binding decision rendered by the Basic Court in Foca, the nine guards can resume their positions”, Dusko Sain, chief of the Correctional Facilities Surveillance Section with the Republika Srpska, RS, Justice Ministry, told Justice Report.
 

“An appeal was filed, but the District Court in Trebinje confirmed the verdict and they resumed their functions on July 9,” he added. “They are performing the same jobs they performed before suspension.” Sain said there was “no reason for them not to go back to work”.
 

The names of the guards who have returned to work have not been released.


Stankovic escaped from Foca prison on May 25, 2007. He was only two months into a 20-year sentence, after having been convicted by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for crimes against humanity in the Foca municipality in 1992.  


After his escape, Interpol issued an arrest warrant, which expanded the search for him to neighbouring countries. But more than a year on, no information on his whereabouts has been made public.
Interpol in Sarajevo says data related to this case is “confidential” and cannot be shared.


“We do not have any new pieces of information related to Stankovic’s movements, except for one suggesting he is still in Serbia,” Dragan Lukac, assistant director of the State Investigation and Protection Agency, SIPA, said recently.


The last trace related to Stankovic was a letter that he allegedly sent to some of the RS media in early May. In it, he threatened Davorin Jukic, the State Court judge who chaired the first instance trial, as well as some SIPA staff. 


As SIPA indicated, the letter was sent from Han Pijesak, eastern Bosnia. They also say analysis showed Stankovic wrote the letter.


Immediately following the escape, Bosnian prosecutors opened an investigation against those suspected of having aided his flight. The RS Justice Ministry also dismissed Aleksandar Cicmil, then manager of the Foca prison.
 

In late May 2007, SIPA provided the State Prosecution with a report that said nine persons were suspected of having helped the convict flee. 
 

The nine, including five guards from the prison in Foca, were arrested on June 1, 2007.
 

Two days later the five guards were released, however. Mile Krsmanovic, assistant director for security at Foca prison, Brankica Davidovic and Ranka Dragicevic, a doctor and a nurse in Foca hospital, and Ranko Stankovic, Radovan’s brother, were kept in custody.
 

Late in May, the District Prosecution in Trebinje opened an investigation against 11 persons suspected of “enabling Stankovic’s escape”.
 

Justice Report has learnt that the investigation was soon referred to the State Prosecution.
 

For over a year now, the State Prosecution has conducted the investigation against those persons but no indictments have been filed.
 

Prosecution officials say they are about to complete the investigation and file indictments but that “this depends on the efficiency of court institutions of another country, asked to provide international legal help”. However, there has been no explanation which “foreign country” was referred to. 

 
The State Prosecution has not said whether the investigation against Ranko Stankovic, the fugitive’s brother, has been dismissed, either.
 

Under Bosnia’s criminal code, blood relatives cannot be prosecuted for this type of crime.
 

Ranko Stankovic was released on August 10, 2007, after the Appellate Chamber of the State Court determined that “the existence of blood relations between the suspect and the convict excludes the existence of a criminal act of helping the convict”.
 

Nevertheless, SIPA officials told Justice Report that, acting on a warrant issued by the State Court, SIPA on June 12 had searched the house of the convict’s brother in Foca and the apartment of Radovan Stankovic’s wife.
 

Available data suggest Stankovic escaped while being transported to a dentist for a check-up.
 

Representatives of the RS Justice Ministry say their investigation discovered many irregularities preceding the escape. 
 

Although nine guards took part in transporting the convict, the RS Justice Ministry says they did not escort the prisoner “in the proper manner” and did not use weapons to prevent his escape, even though they were authorized to do so. 

 
According to the investigation, Stankovic fled by a car, parked near the Foca prison. The vehicle was later found near the border crossing between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. 
 

The State Prosecution believes Ranko Vukovic arranged the purchase of this vehicle between May 20 and May 23, 2007. He was arrested in June 2007.
 

Vukovic is still in custody because a first-instance verdict in February 2008 sentenced him to 12 years’ imprisonment for crimes against humanity in Foca municipality.


Radovan Stankovic was the first indictee to be transferred from the Hague Tribunal to Sarajevo for further processing as part of the exit strategy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY. 


The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced Stankovic, a former member of Miljevina Battalion of Foca Tactical Brigade with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, for his role in crimes against civilians from Foca municipality in 1992. They said he also helped organise and supervise the so-called “Karaman kuca”, a detention centre for women widely used by Serbian soldiers as a brothel.


Young women and girls detained in Karaman kuca were routinely physically and mentally abused, raped and forced to perform hard labour.


Radovan Stankovic was found guilty of having personally raped three women in Karaman kuca. Witnesses at the trial said he was “the chief” and made decisions on “who would take which girl”.


Merima Husejnovic is BIRN – Justice Report journalist. merima@birn.eu.com. Justice Report is BIRN online weekly publication