prijava
THE HAGUE/SARAJEVO, January 17 (FENA) - The UN court in The Hague granted early release to Valentin Ćorić, one of the six leaders of the unrecognized Bosnian Croat statelet of 'Herzeg-Bosna' who were convicted of war crimes during 1992-1994.
The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, MICT, has granted early release to Valentin Ćorić, former commander of the military police with Herzeg-Bosna’s armed forces, the Croat Defense Council, his lawyer told BIRN on Wednesday.
Ćorić’s attorney, Dražen Plavec, said his client would be freed the same day, after serving more than two-thirds of his 16-year sentence for crimes committed on the territory of Herceg-Bosna, a wartime unrecognized Bosnian Croat statelet with its headquarters in Mostar.
“The conditions for his release had already been met on September 24 last year. He served more than 11 years in prison,” Plavec said, adding that Ćorić would first go to Croatia after being freed.
Croatian media reported that the decision for Ćorić’s early release also bans him from contacting witnesses and victims, as well as making public appearances in the media.
In November 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, convicted Ćorić and five other officials of Herzeg-Bosnia of participating in a joint criminal enterprise aimed at persecuting and ethnically cleansing Bosniaks from that territory.
The court said that Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoje Petković, Valentin Ćorić and Berislav Pušić wanted to annex Herceg-Bosna to a “Greater Croatia“.
Prlić was sentenced to 25 years in prison, Stojić, Praljak and Petković to 20 years each, Ćorić to 16, and Pušić to ten years.
While the verdict was read out, Praljak drank poison in the courtroom and died soon afterwards.
(FENA) S. R.
