Valentin Ćorić, one of the six convicted persons in the Prosecutor v. Prlić et al. case yesterday completed his 16-year sentence, handed down by a Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on 29 May 2013 and affirmed on appeal by the ICTY Appeals Chamber on 29 November 2017.
Ćorić was granted conditional early release on 16 January 2019, pursuant to a Decision by the then-President of the Mechanism, after having served two-thirds of his sentence. His early release was subject to a number of conditions outlined in the Decision.
Between 1992 and 1994, Ćorić was the Chief of the Military Police Administration and Minister of Interior of the former wartime Croatian entity of Herceg-Bosna in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed on the territory of BiH under the control of the Bosnian Croat forces, including murder, persecution, deportation, rape, imprisonment, unlawful labor, and inhumane treatment.
With Ćorić no longer under Mechanism jurisdiction, the list of convicted persons by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), ICTY, or the Mechanism whose sentences are still being enforced currently stands at 49 individuals, with 42 persons serving their sentences across 12 enforcement States, four persons temporarily housed at the United Nations Detention Unit awaiting transfer to an enforcement State, and three persons having been granted conditional early release.
The Mechanism is responsible for carrying out a number of essential functions of the ICTR and the ICTY, which closed in 2015 and 2017, respectively. These include the supervision of enforcement of sentences, tracking and prosecution of remaining fugitives, protection of victims and witnesses, assistance to national jurisdictions, and preservation and management of the archives.
