Persons indicted

Defendants: 1

Rank(s) of person(s) indicted

Defendant's rank: lower police officer

Indictment date

04/09/2014

Case stage

Case status: finally resolved

Duration of proceedings since trial commencement

11 months 8 days

Witnesses examined

0

Date and outcome of the first instance verdict

02/18/2015

In its judgment of 18 February 2015, the Higher Court in Belgrade accepted the guilty plea agreement concluded between M.C. and the War Crimes Prosecutor, and sentenced the defendant to 1.5 years in prison for a war crime against prisoners of war.
Defendant M.C. admitted that on 27 February 1992 - acting as part of the Krajina Serb Autonomous Area's police force - he had physically injured and otherwise tortured two prisoners of war at the collection centre in Sremska Mitrovica.

Date and outcome of decision on appeal

Date and outcome of verdict in new trial

Criminal offence

Criminal offence: war crime against prisoners of war, art. 144, FRY Criminal Act

Background facts

Background facts:
According to the indictment allegations, on 27 February 1992, the accused, at the time member of the police force of the Krajina Serb Autonomous Area, was present in the prison facility in Sremska Mitrovica, where he tortured and physically injured two prisoners of war of Croat nationality in order to extort information and confessions from them.

Procedural remarks

Procedural remarks:
In its indictment (ref. K-DO-18/07) of 29 May 2007, the County State Prosecutor in Osijek accused M. C. of torture against a number of Vukovar civilians held in the detention camp in Sremska Mitrovica. The Croatian State Prosecutor subsequently referred this case to the competence of the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor.