Having held a hearing in the criminal case against the accused Milan Todović, the Appellate Division Panel of Section I for War Crimes at the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has delivered a judgment refusing Defense’s appeal as ill-founded, while upholding the trial judgment delivered by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, No. S1 1 K 021644 18 Kri of 4 December 2018.
The trial judgment No. S1 1 K 021644 18 Kri of 4 December 2018 found the accused Milan Todović guilty that by the acts described in the operative part of the judgment he committed the criminal offense of Crimes against Humanity under Article 172(1) of the CC BiH as read with Subparagraph g), all in conjunction with Article 180(1) of the CC BiH, so the first-instance court, applying the foregoing provisions and Articles 40, 42 and 48 of the CC BiH, sentenced the accused to 10 (ten) years of imprisonment.
Pursuant to Article 198(2) of the CPC BiH, the judgment partly granted the compensation claim, so the accused Milan Todović is obligated to pay 13,100.00 KM as non-material damage, with default interest running from the date of adjudication, within 30 days of the date of judgment finality, under the threat of enforcement. The judgment also refused as ill-founded the victim’s compensation claim beyond the amount of non-material damage already adjudicated , in which regard the victim is advised to pursue her claim in civil proceedings.
Pursuant to Article 188(4) of the CPC BiH, under the judgment the accused is relieved of the obligation to reimburse the costs of criminal proceeding, which will be covered from within Court’s budget appropriations.
The accused Milan Todović’s defense counsel had filed a timely appeal from the judgment, on the grounds of criminal code violation, error of fact, sentencing decision and compensation claim, moving the Appellate Division Panel of the Court of BiH to grant the appeal and modify the trial judgment by way of imposing a more lenient sentence on the accused Milan Todović.
The BiH Prosecutor’s Office has filed a response to the appeal, moving the Panel to deny the appeal as ill-founded.
Pursuant to Article 304(4) of the CPC BiH, on 12 March 2018 the Appellate Panel held a session, at which defense counsel orally presented his arguments raised on appeal, and said he adhered fully to those arguments. The accused Milan Todović joined the arguments presented by his defense counsel. The Prosecutor orally presented his response to Defense’s appeal, and proposed that it be denied as ill-founded.
