Cases in trial or on appeal against verdict

Documents 14.11.2006. Stanković Radovan First instance 28.03.2007. Stanković Radovan Second instance All documents are in PDF format. In order to view them you need Adobe Acrobat reader.

Factual grounds for indictment:

The indictment against Radovan Stankovic alleges that, in the period between April 1992 to February 1993, as a member of the Miljevina battalion, Foča tactical brigade, he committed, incited, aided and abetted the enslavement, torture, rape and killing of non-Serb civilians.  These acts were allegedly carried out as part of a widespread and systematic attack of the army of Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, police and paramilitary formations against the non-Serb population of the Foča Municipality.

According to the indictment, together with other persons, the accused set up a detention center for women in August 1992, in the so-called „Karamanova kuća“ (Karaman's House), which the soldiers also referred to as the „Brothel“. The indictment alleges that at least nine female persons were detained in the center, most of them juveniles.

It was allegedly in this center that the accused, alone or with other persons, over a an extended period of time, forced several female detainees into sexual intercourse and forced labor, whereby he insulted and beat them.

Furthermore, the indictment alleges that the accused held one of the female detainees locked at more than one location until early November 1992, during which time he forced her into sexual intercourse (rape) and forced labor on a daily basis, which included cooking, washing of clothes and the cleaning of apartments. The accused allegedly frequently raped this detainee in the presence of others, and on one occasion raped her juvenile sister in her presence.

As alleged in the indictment, between June and December 1992, armed with a rifle and a knife, the accused walked into a hospital in Foča where he forcibly took one of the hospitalized female patients, and brought her into an apartment in Foča where he forced her into sexual intercourse, subsequently returning her to the hospital.

Counts of the Indictment:

Radovan Stanković is charged with the following criminal offences of Crimes Against Humanity under Article 172., Paragraph 1of the Criminal Code of  BiH:

1. enslavement,
2. imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law,
3. torture,
4. coercing another by force or by threat of immediate attack upon his life or limb, or the life or limb of a person close to him, to sexual intercourse or an equivalent sexual act (rape), sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity.

The trial in the case of Radovan Stanković commenced on 22 May 2006.  On 14 November 2006, the Court pronounced the first instance verdict and found the Accused guilty of Crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 16 years imprisonment.  On 28 March 2007, the Appellate handed down the final verdict modifying the sentence handed down by the Trial Panel from 16 years to 20 years long term imprisonment.  This final verdict completes the first case transferred to the authorities of BiH for further processing by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.