“The Republic of Serbia is ready to accept international supervision of Serbian citizens convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) serving their sentences in Serbia,” Assistant Justice Minister Čedomir Backović stated at the United Nations Security Council session in New York.
He explained that such supervision would be specified in detail and that the Government of the Republic of Serbia was ready to provide clear guarantees that convicted persons would not be released early without appropriate decisions made by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) or another United Nations body to be in charge of this matter in the future.
“The purpose of punishment is, inter alia, the resocialisation of convicted persons. It can hardly be expected that the purpose of punishment will be achieved if convicts serve their sentences in far-away countries, in the languages they do not understand and where the possibility of having visits and contacting family members has been reduced to a minimum”, he said. Assistant Minister Backović noted the great hardship suffered by two Serbian citizens convicted by the ICTY – Milan Martić and Dragomir Milošević – serving their sentences in Estonia.
“Both the former and the current IRMCT Presidents, Theodor Meron and Carmel Agius respectively, have been informed on several occasions about the condition of the two convicts by the Serbian Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the convicts themselves”, Assistant Minister Backović pointed out. He renewed his invitation to the representatives of the IRMCT and of relevant institutions to be designated by the UN Secretary-General to visit the Republic of Serbia, have a tour of prison facilities and personally inspect the condition of prisons intended for the above purpose.
Discussing the initiative of the Republic of Serbia, launched over 10 years ago, to have its citizens convicted by the ICTY serve their sentences in Serbia, Assistant Minister Backović touched upon requests seeking amendments to the relevant provisions of the Rules of Procedure and Evidence on pardon, commutation of sentence and early release. “The Security Council resolution encourages the IRMCT to consider the possibility of conditional early release. There are official statements that President Agius has already ‘taken that on board’ and that the Office of the Prosecutor is ‘gravely concerned’ that most of the convicted persons have been released unconditionally after serving only two thirds of their sentences”, the Assistant Justice Minister noted, adding that such statements were actually announcements of unjustified changes to be made to the IRMCT’s work.
“It is hard to believe it to be a coincidence that this issue is ‘on the agenda’ at the time when several citizens of the Republic of Serbia are to meet or have met the requirements for early release, after the expiry of two thirds of their prison sentences. Most of them have applied for early release with the IRMCT President,” Assistant Minister Backović said, pointing out that President Agius had failed to respond without offering any explanation. He reiterated that those were individuals of advanced age and poor health, and that their cases should be resolved fairly for reasons of humanity.
Assistant Minister Backović mentioned the case of General Nebojša Pavković, whom the war crimes prosecutor of the so-called Kosovo Drita Hajdari tried to interrogate at the Finland’s Kylmäkoski Prison. That event was allegedly related to the provision of ‘international’ legal assistance based on a letter rogatory concerning an investigation order. “Full jurisdiction over this case lies only with the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. According to its Statute, the IRMCT has the power to supervise the enforcement of sentences pronounced by the ICTY and the IRMCT, including the implementation of sentence enforcement agreements entered into by the United Nations with Member States, and other agreements with international and regional organisations and other appropriate organisations and bodies”, Assistant Minister Backović explained. He emphasised that despite two letters being sent to the IRMCT by the Serbian Justice Minister regarding the event, no response had been received. “It is unclear who is responsible for the attempted interrogation, and whether the IRMCT gave its consent to a territory administered by the United Nations under the Resolution 1244 which is not a member of the UN and does not have the status of a state”, he added.
Assistant Minister Backović in the end observed that, the closure of the IRMCT being in sight, an active involvement of the United Nations Security Council in all outstanding issues was of utmost importance. “Deciding on these issues should be transparent, and the Republic of Serbia is expecting answers. Based on everything said so far, it is my opinion that the cooperation between the Republic of Serbia and the IRMCT has otherwise been successful”, he concluded.