There is an answer to the question of how much it costs to commit a war crime in Bosnia and Herzegovina because if someone is convicted of a terrible crime to a sentence of one year, they can redeem that sentence at a price of 100 BAM per day.
This provision is specified in the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and although the question arises as to how someone can receive such a small sentence for rape, torture and other crimes committed in war, the fact that they do not have to serve a single day in prison is even more devastating.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the last five years, eight people sentenced for war crimes to a sentence of up to one year have replaced their prison sentence with a fine. They bought freedom for 36,500 BAM per person.
TRIAL International, which deals with the protection of victims’ rights, has been warning about this phenomenon for some time and calls on those responsible to make it impossible to redeem a war crime sentence.
However, the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, or more precisely the working body of that house, gave a negative opinion twice to the proposed changes to the Criminal Code of BiH, which would regulate this issue more fairly, which is why the law ended its parliamentary procedure.
The amendments to the Criminal Code were submitted to the parliamentary procedure by an MP of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) BiH in that House, Saša Magazinović, who in an interview with FENA said that they were not guided by any political goals, but by common sense and great compassion for the victims and their families.
Magazinović says that the intention of these changes was to make it impossible to redeem the sentence, and there is also a reason to question how it comes about that criminals are sentenced to such an incredibly short prison sentence, and when they are convicted, they have the right to financially redeem it.
When you read some of the verdicts, says Magazinović, it immediately becomes clear that the only logical thing to do is to amend the Criminal Code in such a way that someone convicted of a war crime cannot redeem the sentence.
“The law has now completed its parliamentary journey, unfortunately without success, but the discussion about it will continue in judicial circles because there are tools to fix this issue. Also, the advocacy of the non-governmental sector will continue,” he says.
Magazinović worked with TRIAL International BiH on the amendment of the law and based on the recommendations of the OSCE Mission to BiH, but above all based on the request of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, which in 2020 passed the Decision against BiH, which requires the state to prevent convicted perpetrators of war crimes from having the option of replacing a prison sentence with a fine.
TRIAL International BiH told FENA earlier that the possibility and practice of replacing prison sentences with fines send discouraging messages to victims of war crimes.
Although the state MPs ultimately rejected these legal changes, Magazinović says that the discussion about it showed the illogical aspects of the law, the Ministry of Justice gave a positive opinion, and discussions on the issue were initiated within the judicial institutions.
In the opinion of the BiH Ministry of Justice, it is stated that it is justified to support the amendment envisaged by the draft law, taking into account that the Court of BiH did not prevent the possibility of replacing the imposed prison sentence with a fine for this type of criminal offense.
The Court could have done that, the Ministry says, respecting the provisions of Article 48 of the Criminal Code, because it mandates that the perpetrator of a criminal offense be punished within the limits prescribed by law for that criminal offense, taking into account the purpose of the punishment and taking into account all the circumstances which influence the penalty to be lower or higher.
They also stated that the proposed amendment was supported by the working group established by the Ministry of Justice for amendments to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Criminal Procedure Code, which is the work foreseen in the Ministry of Justice’s Medium-Term Work Plan for 2024.
According to Magazinović, one of the issues that need attention is how it is possible for the suspects to be tried according to the law that was in force at the time of the commission of the crime, which in this case is the Criminal Code of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and then allow them to redeem the sentence, which is enabled by the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Also, it is necessary to change entity laws.
According to the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a day of imprisonment can be redeemed for 100 BAM. The Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Brčko District provide the same amount for a prison sentence per day, while the Criminal Code of the entity of RS prescribes that one day of imprisonment is worth 50 BAM if it is a sentence under 12 months, Fena reports.
