Former BH Army commander in the Srebrenica area was today sentenced to two years in prison for failure to prevent the murders and cruel treatment of Serb prisoners in Srebrenica. Oric was acquitted on all the other counts of the indictments. “General circumstances” prevalent in Srebrenica at the time were a key factor for the mild sentence

Naser Oric, former BH Army commander in the Srebrenica area was today sentenced to two years in prison for failure to prevent the murders and cruel treatment of Serb prisoners in Srebrenica between 27 December 1992 and 20 March 1993. Oric was acquitted on the charges of murder and cruel treatment before that period because the Trial Chamber found that until that time he had not had effective control over the military police responsible for the prisoners.

Oric was also acquitted on the counts charging him with wanton destruction of Serb villages, not justified by military necessity. Although the Chamber found that all the elements of the crime of wanton destruction were present in the attacks on the villages of Ratkovici, Gornji Ratkovici, Bradjevina and Jezestica, it nevertheless decided that Oric did not have effective control over all the armed groups and the civilians that followed the fighters in those attacks. This despite the fact that Oric was formally the commander of the Territorial Defense in Srebrenica. As for the destruction in the villages of Kravica, Siljkovici, Bjelovac, Fakovici and Sikiric, the judgment states that the prosecution failed to present convincing evidence that the Muslim forces were responsible for them, because the Serb forces used artillery in the fighting in those villages. In the case of the village of Bjelovac, they even used the warplanes.

In determining the sentence, the Chamber stated that it took into account a number of mitigating circumstances: “a certain cooperation with the prosecution” on Oric’s part, and “a certain remorse”, his voluntary surrender, his personal and family circumstances, consideration he showed to the Serb prisoners on some occasions, and in particular, the general circumstances prevalent in Srebrenica in the time relevant for the indictment (late 1992 and early 1993). The “terrible general and personal circumstances”, the judges stressed as the sentence was delivered, were the “key factor” in determining Naser Oric’s sentence.

Since the accused has already spent three years, two months and 21 days in the UN Detention Unit, the Chamber ordered his immediate release, as soon as all the administrative formalities are taken care of.

The Trial Chamber that sentenced Naser Oric was composed of Judge Agius, presiding, and judges Eser from Germany and Breydenshold from Denmark.