Following the consideration and acceptance of the Plea Agreement entered into by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the Accused Ljubičić, the Court of BiH pronounced a verdict finding Paško Ljubičić guilty of the criminal offence of War Crimes against Civilians and sentenced him to imprisonment for a term of 10 years.

The Accused Ljubičić was found guilty because on 15 and 16 April 1993, as a commander of the 4th Military Police Battalion of the Croat Defence Council (HVO), which functioned in the Central Bosnia Operative Zone, he conveyed the order he received from his superior officer Tihomir Blaškić to his subordinates to attack the village of Ahmići. In doing so, the Accused Ljubičić, aware that by conveying such orders to members of his subordinate unit he could cause death of a number of persons, physical and mental suffering of a large number of persons and destruction of property on a larger scale, to which he consented, he added and abetted the planning and execution of this attack. Bosniak civilians were expelled from the village of Ahmići during the attack, numerous suffered serious mental and physical injuries and two mosques were destroyed.

The Accused Ljubičić is also responsible by virtue of his position as a superior for the offences perpetrated by his subordinates, over whom he had effective control, and the fact that he acted upon the order of his superior commander Tihomir Blaškić does not relieve him of criminal responsibility. 

The Court of BiH has issued a decision terminating custody of the Accused Ljubičić upon which the Accused is to be released forthwith.

This case was referred to the authorities of BiH for further processing pursuant to a decision of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia of 4 July 2006.  The Accused was transferred to BiH on 22 September 2006.

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