In the criminal case of Mustafa Đelilović et al., the Appellate Division Panel of Section I for War Crimes at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina issued a decision granting the appeals filed by the BiH Prosecutor’s Office and defense counsel for the accused Mustafa Đelilović and Halid Čović, so the trial judgment of the Court of BiH No. S1 1 K 007914 12 Kri of 5 July 2018 is revoked and a retrial ordered before the Appellate Division Panel of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The trial judgment of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina No. S1 1 K 007914 12 Kri of 5 July 2018 found the accused Mustafa Đelilović, Fadil Čović, Mirsad Šabić, Nezir Kazić, Bećir Hujić, Halid Čović, Šerif Mešanović and Nermin Kalember guilty that by the acts described in the convicting part of the judgment they committed the criminal offense of War Crimes against Civilians under Article 142(1) of the Criminal Code of SFRY, adopted pursuant to the Law on the Application of the Criminal Code of RBiH and the Criminal Code of SFRY, as read with Articles 22 and 30 of the Code. The Court sentenced the accused Mustafa Đelilović to 10 years of imprisonment, the accused Fadil Čović to eight years of imprisonment, the accused Mirsad Šabić to six years of imprisonment, the accused Nezir Kazić to 10 years of imprisonment, the accused Bećir Hujić to eight years of imprisonment, the accused Halid Čović to six years of imprisonment, the accused Šerif Mešanović to seven years of imprisonment, and the accused Nermin Kalember to five years of imprisonment.
The judgment stipulates that the time the accused spent in pre-trial custody, from 22 November 2011 to 1 November 2012, be credited towards the imposed prison sentences. Also, pursuant to Article 188(4) of the CPC BiH, the Court relieved the accused of the obligation to reimburse the costs of the criminal proceedings, while pursuant to Article 198(2) of the CPC BiH the victims are advised to pursue their compensation claims in civil proceedings.
Pursuant to Article 284, Subparagraph c), of the CPC BiH, the accused, namely Bećir Hujić, Halid Čović, Šerif Mešanović and Mirsad Šabić, were acquitted of the charges that by the acts described under Section II of the acquitting part of the judgment, the accused Halid Čović and Šerif Mešanović by the acts described under Section III 1 b, c, d, e and III 3 of the acquitting part of the judgment, the accused Mustafa Đelilović, Fadil Čović, Nezir Kazić, Bećir Hujić, Halid Čović and Šerif Mešanović by the acts described under Section IV of the acquitting part of the judgment, they committed the criminal offense of War Crimes against Civilians under Article 173(1) of the CC BiH and War Crimes against Prisoners of War under Article 175(1) of the CC BiH, all as read with Article 180(1) of the CC BiH and with Article 29 of the CC BiH. Also, in relation to the acquittal, pursuant to Article 189(1) of the CPC BiH the accused were relieved of the obligation to reimburse the costs of the criminal proceedings, which will be borne by the Court’s budgetary appropriations, while pursuant to Article 198(3) of the CPC BiH the victims were advised to pursue their compensation claims in civil proceedings.
The Trial Judgment was appealed by the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH, defense attorneys for the accused Mustafa Đelilović, counsel for the accused Fadil Čović, counsel for the accused Mirsad Šabić, counsel for the accused Nezir Kazić, counsel for the accused Bećir Hujić, counsel for the accused Halid Čović, counsel for the accused Šerif Mešanović and counsel for the accused Nermin Kalember.
The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH filed the appeal on the grounds of essential violation of the criminal procedure provisions in relation to Count III 1e of the Indictment, incorrectly and incompletely established facts in relation to Counts III 1c, III3 and IV of the Indictment and the decision on criminal sanction, moving the Panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH to revoke the contested judgment in its acquitting part in whole, in relation to Counts III1e, III1c, III3 and IV of the Indictment, and order a hearing, and, out of caution, if the Panel does not revoke the contested Judgment, to revise the decision on criminal sanction, namely to impose a lengthier prison sentence than the sentence imposed by the Trial Panel of the Court of BiH.
Counsel for the accused Mustafa Đelilović, Fadil Čović, Mirsad Šabić, Nezir Kazić, Bećir Hujić, Halid Čović, Šerif Mešanović and Nermin Kalember filed the appeals on the grounds of essential violations of the criminal procedure, violation of the criminal code, incompletely established facts and the decision on criminal sanction, moving the Panel of the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH to revise the Trial Judgment by acquitting the accused of the charges, that is, to revoke the Trial Judgment and hold a hearing before the Appellate Panel.
In addition, the Court received from the parties their respective responses to the appeals, namely the Prosecution’s response to all the appeals filed by the defense teams for the accused, and the responses of the defense teams for the accused Mustafa Đelilović, Fadil Čović, Mirsad Šabić, Nezir Kazić, Halid Čović, Šerif Mešanović and Nermin Kalember to the Prosecution’s appeal, with the identical proposals that the motions made by the opposing party be dismissed as ill-founded.
At the session of the Appellate Division Panel held on 20 June 2019, in the absence of the duly summoned accused Šerif Mešanović, pursuant to Article 304 of the CPC BiH, the Prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH and the defense teams for the Accused persons orally presented their respective appeals reasons and stood by their respective grievances and proposals advanced in writing. All the Accused completely stood by the arguments presented by their respective defense attorneys. In addition, the Prosecution presented the contents of the written responses to the appeals filed by the defense teams, underlining that the appeals are ill-founded, that they should be dismissed and the contested Judgment upheld in its convicting part.
