The International Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague rejected requests for the early release of Hague convicts Bruno Stojic, Stojan Zupljanin and Radivoje Miletic.
The International Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals president Graciela Gatti Santana states in the decision that the request of Stojic, the former defense minister of the so-called Herceg-Bosnia, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), should be rejected.
She added that, despite the fact that Stojic meets the conditions and has shown “recent progress towards rehabilitation”, there are still significant factors that at this stage prevent his early release.
”The great gravity of his crimes is one of them. In addition, I still have doubts about the sincerity of Stojic‘s acceptance of responsibility, critical thinking and expression of remorse,” Gatti Santana states, among other things, in her decision.
Stojic had previously asked for early release, and as part of the request, he also sent a letter in which he expressed his regret for all the victims.
He and five other former officials of the so-called Herceg-Bosna – Jadranko Prlic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic – were sentenced to a total of 111 years in prison for crimes committed in BiH.
President Gatti Santana also rejected the request of Zupljanin, the former head of the regional police center in Banja Luka, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison, in which, according to the decision, he stated that in case of early release, he would stay in BiH.
The mechanism also rejected the early release of Miletic, the former head of the Department for Operational-Educative Affairs of the Main Staff of the Army of the Republika Srpska(RS), sentenced to 18 years in prison for the crimes in Srebrenica, who had already made this request four times before and was rejected.
