“They do not admit guilt” – The Chief Judge of the Hague Tribunal refused to release Serbian prisoners early
The chairman of the judicial mechanism, the successor to the abolished International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Carmel Agius, denied early release to several Serb prisoners after serving two-thirds of their sentences.
This was reported by Politika, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
By his decision not to approve early release after serving two-thirds of his sentence, Agius extended Police General Sreten Lukić's prison sentence by a full two and a half years.
“Lukic fulfilled the condition (for early release - ed.) in May 2019, but Agius refused him. – said Sreten Lukic’s lawyer, Branko Lukic. – When it was established that he had already served two-thirds of his sentence, the Polish authorities informed the court in The Hague. After Agius refused to release him, the Polish authorities returned him to custody at Scheveningen prison.”
The lawyer added that Interior Ministry General Vlastimir Djordjevic fulfilled the conditions of early release back in March 2019, but his request has not yet been accepted, so he is still in prison in Germany.
This condition was also fulfilled by the former Chief of the General Staff Nebojsa Pavkovic, who is still serving a 22-year prison sentence in a Finnish prison, although he has been in custody since 2005.
Two-thirds of the 18-year sentence was served in 2018 by Bosnian Serb Army General Radivoje Miletic, who is also imprisoned in Finland.
Radoslav Brjanin, the political leader of the Autonomous Region of Krajina, also served two-thirds of his sentence, but after fulfilling the conditions, he was returned to the custody of the Hague Tribunal from prison in Denmark.
Earlier this year, Bosnian Serb Dragoljub Kunarac's request for early release from prison in Germany was rejected after he had served two-thirds of his 28-year sentence when he surrendered to the tribunal in March 1998.
Thus, Carmel Agius interrupted the practice of his predecessor Theodor Meron, who once granted most requests for the early release of convicts who had served two-thirds of their sentences. The judge explains his decisions by the fact that the convicts did not go through the correction process, even when reports from prisons speak of their exemplary behavior.
“This is the discretion of the chairman of the court, but in fact it is a matter of arbitrariness. Agius requires convicts to admit criminal acts and express repentance, even if they do not plead guilty at trial,” said lawyer Lukic.
English version :: Read in English "They do not admit guilt" - The Chief Judge of the Hague Tribunal refused to release Serbian prisoners early.