Ovčara I – Miroljub Vujović et al.
KTRZ 3/03
200
Persons indicted |
Defendants: |
Rank(s) of person(s) indicted |
middle military (Vujović) |
Indictment date |
|
Case stage |
new appellate proceedings in progress |
Duration of proceedings since trial commencement |
13 years 11 months |
Witnesses examined |
122 |
Date and outcome of the first instance verdict |
first-instance judgment / years in prison: |
Date and outcome of decision on appeal |
decision on appeal: |
Date and outcome of verdict in new trial |
judgment in repeated proceedings / ye4ars in prison: |
Additional info |
Appellate Court's decision - JUDGMENT NOT FINAL (see procedural remarks)
Decision on appeal / years in prison:
Appellate proceedings
Following a series of extraordinary judicial remedies lodged by the defence, the case was remanded to the appellate stage, where it remains to the present day. Former JNA officers Mile Mrkšić, Veselin Šljivančanin and Miroslav Radić stood trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in the case against former JNA officers regarding their involvement in the Ovčara crimes. |
Criminal offence |
war crime against civilian population under art. 144 re art. 22 (co-perpetration), SFRY Criminal Act |
Background facts |
According to the Prosecutor's charges, defendant Miroljub Vujović and others, acting as part of the Vukovar Territorial Defence force and members of the volunteer unit known as 'Leva Supoderica', committed a war crime against prisoners of war at the Ovčara farm outside Vukovar, Croatia, in the night between 20 and 21 November 1991. Charges against the accused included the following: killing, infliction of bodily injuries, inhumane treatment, humiliating acts against human dignity, etc. Such acts were committed against the prisoners of war - members of the Croatian armed force who had surrendered their weapons. The defendants, at the time members of the Vukovar Territorial Defence force and of a volunteer unit known as Leva Supoderica, took over the prisoners of war from the JNA on 20 November 1991. The captives were then taken to a hangar at Ovčara, where they were subjected to torture. The victims were divided into groups and transferred to the site of Grabovo outside Ovčara, where the executions took place. Among those executed were two women, one of whom was visibly pregnant. The victims’ remains were later found in a mass grave site. Out of the 200 bodies recovered, the identities of 193 have been positively determined to date. |
Procedural remarks |
On 15 October 2010, Saša Radak, one of those indicted in the Ovčara case, lodged a constitutional appeal against the Appellate Court's decision. Three years later, the Constitutional Court rendered its decision in this case, finding that the Appellate Court had infringed the defendant's fundamental right to be heard before an impartial court as part of his general right to a fair trial. The Constitutional Court specified that its decision also had a legal effect on other defendants whose rights had been infringed in this case. As it decided on the appeal lodged by defendant Radak, the Constitutional Court did not formally abolish the Appellate Court's decision, yet remanded the case to that court for a new decision. While the Constitutional Court's decision covered all of the Ovčara defendants who were in the same legal position as Radak, four other defendants in this case filed separate constitutional appeals on the same grounds. The Ovčara defendants recently filed a request for the protection of legality, which was considered by the Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC). On 19 June 2014, the SCC remanded the case to the Appellate Court for reconsideration. On 1 December 2014, the Appellate Court opened new appellate proceedings in the Ovčara case. |