Judgment - Banović - 28 October 2003

For more information: http://www.icty.org/x/cases/banovic/t...

At a hearing held on June 26, 2003, the Accused pleaded guilty to Count 1 of the Consolidated Indictment, persecutions, a crime against humanity, punishable under Articles 5(h) and 7(1) of the Statute of the Tribunal. The Accused's plea was made pursuant to a Plea Agreement between the parties dated 5 June 2003. In the Agreement, the Prosecutor agreed that following the plea of guilty and conviction, it would seek leave to withdraw, with prejudice, all other counts, criminal responsibility and allegations against the Accused not set out in the Plea Agreement. The Trial Chamber has accordingly dismissed all other counts against the Accused as well as criminal responsibility for the acts of others as pleaded in the Indictment.

A Sentencing Hearing in this matter was held on 3 September 2003 during which the parties expanded on the arguments set out in their respective briefs regarding factors to be considered in determining sentence. Both the Prosecution and the Defence requested that the Trial Chamber impose a sentence of eight years. The Trial Chamber adjourned the case to consider sentence.

A written Factual Basis for the crime and for Mr. Banović's participation in it was filed with the Plea Agreement. The Factual Basis was agreed by the Accused with his counsel and forms the basis upon which the Trial Chamber will determine sentence. The facts described therein are as follows.

The case against the Accused covers events which occurred in the Municipality of Prijedor, located in the north-western region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Following the overthrow of the Municipal Government of Prijedor during the summer of 1992, Bosnian Serb authorities in the Prijedor municipality unlawfully segregated, detained and confined large number of men, women and children in three major camps, one of which was the Keraterm camp, located in a ceramic factory on the eastern outskirts of Prijedor town.

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