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Stankovic et al: Seven Indictees Acquitted

Stankovic i ostali

17 March 2010  Of the ten people charged with helping Radovan Stankovic escape from Foca Prison, his brother Ranko Stankovic, Ranka Dragicevic and Brankica Davidovic are the only ones who have been convicted.

Ranko Stankovic was sentenced to two years in prison for having "enabled a person deprived of liberty to escape", while Davidovic and Dragicevic were conditionally discharged, after having signed an agreement with the State Prosecution and admitted the "falsification of documents", with a probationary period of six months. The sentence will not be executed if they do not commit any other crime in the period of two years from the pronouncement of the verdict.

Mile Krsmanovic, Assistant Director for Security with the Security Service of the Penal and Correctional Facility in Foca, and guards Miroslav Blagojevic, Zdravko Vreco, Dragan Masic, Srdjan Vilotic, Miro Prodanovic and Goran Milosevic were acquitted of charges of "unprofessional conduct".

"The Court was not able to find elements of obvious unprofessional conduct in the indictees' actions. One month prior to the escape, Stankovic was escorted to the same examination by one guard only. (...) Only after he had fled, some things changed, including the rules for escorting convicts. This is the first trial for helping someone escape, although escapes had occurred before. The trial itself will have a preventive purpose," Judge Branko Peric said.

On May 25, 2007 Radovan Stankovic fled from Foca Prison, where he was serving a 20-year sentence handed down by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for crimes against humanity committed in Foca area during 1992.

Ranko Stankovic was sentenced because between May 23 and May 25, 2007 he obtained a car, "as per a previous agreement with his brother Radovan", which was parked, with a driver in it, in front of the Faculty of Dentistry in Foca, to which Radovan Stankovic was brought for a tooth x-ray on May 25, 2007.

"The Court determined that Stankovic helped his brother Radovan flee. The Court believes that any objective observer who has followed this trial would reach the same conclusion. The Court made sure it was not distracted by the fact that the indictee is the convict's brother, but this was the starting point in rendering the decision," Judge Peric said.

The time Stankovic has spent in custody, from May 31 to August 10, 2007, will be calculated towards his sentence.

Brankica Davidovic i Ranka Dragicevic

The Court confirmed the allegations contained in the indictment that Dr Brankica Davidovic, acting on a request made by Ranko Stankovic, told Nurse Ranka Dragicevic to refer Radovan Stankovic for a tooth x-ray and the examination was allegedly supposed to be used for "the convict to meet his family".

Judge Peric said it was not necessary to impose a prison sentence in this case, because the fact that they were brought to trial "has sufficiently affected the indictees", adding that the verdict would have "the elements of prevention".

"We consider the sanction is sufficiently preventive. By guilt admission, the charges against Ranko Stankovic were fully confirmed. This was the basic motive for making the agreement," Prosecutor Miroslav Markovic said at the hearing held prior to the pronouncement of the verdict.