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International-UN-NGOs
Genocide conviction upheld against Mladic
2021-06-09
In a more civilized age, Mladic would be worm food.
[Rooters] United Nations war crimes judges on Tuesday upheld a genocide conviction and life sentence against former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, confirming his central role in Europe’s worst atrocities since World War Two.

Mladic, 78, led Bosnian Serb forces during Bosnia's 1992-95 war. He was convicted in 2017 on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes including terrorising the civilian population of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during a 43-month siege, and the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys taken prisoner in the eastern town of Srebrenica in 1995.

"His name should be consigned to the list of history's most depraved and barbarous figures," chief tribunal prosecutor Serge Brammertz said after the verdict. He urged all officials in the ethnically divided region of former Yugoslavia to condemn the ex-general.
More at the link
Should've had a long steady diet of ground glass in his meals
Related:
Ratko Mladic: 2017-11-22 Serb commander Ratko Mladic found guilty in Hague court
Ratko Mladic: 2013-07-12 Genocide charge against Karadzic reinstated
Ratko Mladic: 2012-10-17 Karadzic tells war crimes court he should be rewarded
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Europe
Serb general Mladic to boycott war crimes court
2011-07-04
AMSTERDAM: Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic will boycott the UN war crimes court, where he is scheduled to enter a plea on Monday against charges of genocide during the Bosnian war, his lawyer said on Sunday.

Arrested in May after 16 years on the run, Mladic formally was charged by the Yugoslavia tribunal in The Hague last month when the defiant general rejected war crimes charges against him as “obnoxious” and “monstrous.”

Mladic is accused over a campaign to seize territory for Serbs after Bosnia, following Croatia, broke away from the Yugoslav federation in the 1990s as the Balkan state broke up during five years of war that killed at least 130,000 people.

The 69-year-old career soldier is due to enter the plea after refusing to do so last month, but Belgrade-based attorney Milos Saljic said Mladic would boycott the hearing to demand that he be represented by his own defense lawyers.
So enter a plea of 'not guilty' on his behalf and get on with it.
“Mladic is not going to appear in the courtroom tomorrow unless he is forced to. He does not want to do it because he does not have his team of lawyers yet,” Saljic told Reuters.

If Mladic boycotts the hearing or refuses to enter a plea at Monday’s hearing, judge Alphens Orie will likely enter one of “not guilty” for him.
There you go, Alphie, now set a trial date.
Mladic’s former political chief Radovan Karadzic boycotted the start of his trial in 2009 and it is considered unlikely that the tribunal would force Mladic to appear on Monday.

“The tribunal has no official indication or confirmation that Mladic is not going to appear so I am unable to comment,” court spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic said.

Mladic, who has said he was only defending his country and people during the 1992-5 Bosnia war, has lodged a list of preferred defense lawyers with the court, including Saljic and a Russian lawyer, but the tribunal is still verifying the qualifications and eligibility of the attorneys. Court-appointed lawyer Aleksandar Aleksic, who represented Mladic at his first hearing, will represent him on Monday.

Mladic is accused in connection with the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica — Europe’s worst massacre since World War Two. Hague prosecutor Serge Brammertz has said Mladic used his power to commit brutal atrocities and must answer for it, but Serb nationalists believe Mladic defended the nation and did no worse than Croat or Bosnian Muslim army commanders.
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Europe
UN covered up organ trafficking report: Serbia
2010-12-27
Serbia asked the international war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia to investigate a former UN chief in Kosovo for covering up a report on organ trafficking, a report said on Sunday. Serbia’s minister for cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) wrote to chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz seeking an inquest into Soren Jessen Petersen, the head of the UN’s mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) from 2004 to 2006, Blic newspaper reported. “We are waiting for ICTY to open an inquest into UNMIK officials at the time for contempt of court,” minister Rasim Ljajic told the newspaper. Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty published a report earlier this month that linked Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci to organ trading and organised crime, which Thaci has denied. UNMIK investigated possible organ trafficking in 2004, but it did not take it further citing lack of evidence. “At the time, UNMIK said it did not have a report on organ trafficking and had no proof ... But in 2008 our war crimes prosecutor obtained 16 pages of this report,” Ljajic said
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Top Secret Report Submitted by Police Intelligence to UN Investigation Committee
2010-11-16
[An Nahar] Lebanese police intelligence bureau has reportedly submitted a "top secret" report to the U.N. investigation committee probing ex-PM Rafik Hariri's liquidation.

The report includes "important" information related to tracking down and collecting data on Hizbullah leaders published in 2005, al-Akhbar newspaper said Monday.

It said in addition to the "well-documented" effort to create a vision for the Resistance's
That'd be the Hezbullies, natch...
 military and security organizational structure, there is a detailed report about the telecommunications' issue that was handed over to the international investigation committee which was headed by Judge Serge Brammertz at the time.

Al-Akhbar said the 28-page report, a copy of which was made available to the newspaper, has been classified as "top secret."

It said the report, which includes phone numbers, was issued by the intelligence bureau of the Internal Security Forces June 30, 2006.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Attacks Targeting STL a Copy of Campaigns on Former Yugoslavia Tribunal
2010-10-27
[An Nahar] The third day of the International Media Forum organized by the Special Tribunal for Leb in The Hague has dropped the "conspiracy theory" which has long characterized Leb, sending those harmed by the Court to launch political and media campaigns targeting STL credibility and raising skepticism on the Court objectives.

Media representatives have noticed through the round table held at the headquarters of the Foundation of International Information in The Hague, Netherlands, that attacks against the STL -- accusations and skepticism on its establishment and its goals -- are only a replica of the campaign against the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal.
Common ground was found between the positions of those harmed by the Former Yugoslavia and Leb tribunals in discussions and exchange of information regarding challenges facing the media covering the work of the International Tribunal, from the standpoint of objectivity in combining between the legal mechanisms involving the investigative work and trials on one hand, and between the positions of political parties on the principle of international tribunals:

1 - Opponents of the Yugoslavia Tribunal who condemned a 1993 U.N. decision to set it up, argued that the Court aimed to divide the former Yugoslavia after the fall of Communism and the Soviet Union to weaken the new independent entities emerging to allow the United States to get hold of the region, just as some voices in Leb accused the U.S. of fragmenting the region via the Special Tribunal for Leb.

2- Opponents of the former Yugoslavia Tribunal believed upon its establishment that its work and the accusations it was going to issue would ignite sectarian strife between Mohammedans and Christians, which is what those Lebanese harmed by the Tribunal have been warning of.

3- Opponents of the Yugoslavia Tribunal considered that search for justice through the Court would lead to destabilization through multilateral war in an attempt to overthrow the court and prevent it from carrying out its work, which is actually what happened in the wars and battles of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro and others. In Leb, however, the equation of a choice between justice and stability is flourishing given that those who refuse and are harmed by the STL consider justice sought by the Court will destabilize Leb and push the country and the region into complicated wars.

4- During the phase of the investigation into war crimes in former Yugoslavia scathing personal campaigns against the General Prosecutor were launched to an extent of describing her as "a bitch." This scenario was repeated with international investigators particularly Detlev Mehlis, who was accused of using his job to ensure lavish spending and meet the invitations to banquets and night life in Beirut. Investigator Serge Brammertz and STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare also did not survive accusations.

5- Those harmed by the former Yugoslavia Tribunal work have accused investigators that they were working for the interests of American and international intelligence. The same scenario is repeated today with the probe into the liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri when those harmed by the STL have accused Tribunal managers of serving the interests of the United States and Israel.

6- Many during the foundation phase of the former Yugoslavia sought to torpedo the court through regional and international equations and many bet on efforts to try to persuade Russia, heir to the Soviet Union and as Greek Orthodox leader, to work to help bring down the court to protect some Serb leaders indicted for war crimes. But the attempts failed and the Court carried on.

7- Those with the upper hand in the former Yugoslavia tried to stop the International Tribunal, a scenario echoed by STL opponents in Leb in the hope that they would succeed in stopping it through withdrawal of recognition. But the STL carried on.

8- Former Yugoslavia Tribunal faced difficulties since its establishment as well as financial obstacles, but every time things end up ensuring continuation of its work. For example, budget for the first year of the former Yugoslavia Tribunal began at $270,000 to reach today an annual budget of $300 million.

In short, all the accusations today against the Special Tribunal for Leb were previously launched against the former Yugoslavia Tribunal. And after more than 17 years of accusations against the Yugoslavia Tribunal, the Court still operates and has prosecuted Presidents, Cabinet ministers and military commanders, and continues to carry out the task that was entrusted to it via sessions -- between 4 and 5 sessions per week for a period between 6 and 8 hours a day.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon's Hariri assassins tribunal starts March 1
2008-11-28
A special U.N. tribunal to try the suspected assassins of Lebanese former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri is on track to start operations on March 1, according to a U.N. report issued on Wednesday. "On the basis of the progress so far reported ... it is envisaged that the Special Tribunal will commence functioning on 1 March 2009," Ban Ki-moon wrote in the report.

The 2005 assassination sparked a worldwide outcry that forced the withdrawal of Syrian troops that had been in Lebanon for nearly 30 years. A U.N. probe and the establishment of the tribunal remain sensitive issues in Lebanon, where tension between pro- and anti-Syrian camps runs high.

Preparations underway
Hariri and 22 other people died in a car bomb explosion in Beirut on Feb. 14, 2005. Some anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians said Syria was behind the suicide bombing, a charge Damascus vehemently denies. The attack was one of the worst acts of political violence to rock Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war, and led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops after a 29-year presence.

U.N. investigators have neither publicly identified suspects nor issued indictments. The U.N. Security Council voted in May 2007 to set up the tribunal in The Hague, in the Netherlands.

"It is my belief that the impending start of the special tribunal will send a strong signal that the government of Lebanon and the United Nations remain committed to ending impunity in Lebanon," he said.
The U.N report said the start-up phase of the tribunal was well under way, including recruitment and training of staff, preparation of premises for the court and the raising of sufficient funds to meet the budget.

United Nation weighs in
Ban said in the report he had selected both international and Lebanese judges in the case but would not announce their names until all necessary security measures were in place. "Practical arrangements for the prosecutor to arrive in The Hague on 1 March 2009 and to continue the investigation with the minimum of disruption to the investigation will soon be finalized," the report said.

"It is my belief that the impending start of the special tribunal will send a strong signal that the government of Lebanon and the United Nations remain committed to ending impunity in Lebanon," he said.

Prosecutors said a likely motive for the killing was the role of Hariri, who became a prominent critic of Syria, in support of a 2004 U.N. resolution demanding that Syrian and other foreign troops withdraw from Lebanon.

Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, who took charge of the U.N. investigation from Belgium's Serge Brammertz at the beginning of this year, said in March a network of individuals was responsible for the killing and it was linked to other political attacks.

Ban's report said the proposed budget for establishing the tribunal and for its first year of operations was $51 million, and there was sufficient money in hand to go ahead with it.
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Europe
Top war crimes suspect Karadzic arrested in Serbia
2008-07-22
BELGRADE, Serbia - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, accused architect of massacres making him one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested Monday evening in a raid that ended a near 13-year manhunt, the country's president and the UN tribunal said. Karadzic is the suspected mastermind of mass killings that the UN war crimes tribunal described as ‘scenes from hell, written on the darkest pages of human history.’ They include the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica, Europe's worst slaughter since World War II.
Good. Now let's hope the tribunal can deal with him before 2020.
‘This is a very important day for the victims who have waited for this arrest for over a decade. It is also an important day for international justice because it clearly demonstrates that nobody is beyond the reach of the law,’ said Serge Brammertz, the tribunal's head prosecutor.

President Boris Tadic's office said Karadzic has been taken before the investigative judge of Serbia's war crimes court - a legal procedure that indicates he could soon be extradited to the UN court at The Hague, Netherlands. If Karadzic is transferred to there, he would be the 44th Serb suspect extradited to the tribunal. The others include former President Slobodan Milosevic, who was ousted in 2000 and died in 2006 while on trial on war crimes charges.

Heavily armed special forces have been deployed around the war crimes court in Belgrade where Karadzic reportedly was being held. Karadzic's brother, Luka, also arrived at the location in central Belgrade. Serbian police deployed throughout central Belgrade as well as in front of the US embassy, which was targeted in nationalist rioting over Kosovo's declaration of independence in February.

The White House called the arrest ‘an important demonstration of the Serbian Government's determination to honor its commitment to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal.’
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN investigator says Hariri was killed by criminal network
2008-03-29
Former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a criminal network that is linked to some other terrorist attacks in Lebanon, the chief investigator said Friday. In his first report to the UN Security Council, Daniel Bellemare said the first priority of the investigating commission he heads is to gather more evidence about the "Hariri Network," its scope, the identity of all its participants, their role in other attacks and links with people outside the network.

Bellemare said the commission would not disclose any names to preserve confidentiality. "Names of individuals will only appear in future indictments filed by the prosecutor, when there is sufficient evidence to do so," he said.

Four pro-Syrian Lebanese generals have been under arrest for almost two years for alleged involvement in the murder. Syria denies any involvement in Hariri's assassination, but the furor over the attack forced Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon after a 29-year presence.

Bellemare said Syria's cooperation with the commission "continues to be generally satisfactory."

The former Canadian prosecutor said evidence indicates the network existed before his assassination, that it conducted surveillance of the former premier, and that at least part of the network continued to operate after he was killed along with 22 others in a bombing in Beirut on February 14, 2005. "The commission can now confirm, on the basis of available evidence, that a network of individuals acted in concert to carry out the assassination of Rafik Hariri and that this criminal network - the 'Hariri Network' - or parts thereof are linked to some of the other cases within the commission's mandate," Bellemare said.

The Commission has been providing technical assistance to Lebanese authorities in 20 other "terrorist attacks" that have killed 61 people and injured at least 494 others, he said. Eleven attacks have targeted politicians, journalists and security officials and nine involve bombings in public places.

In coming months, Bellemare said, the commission will also focus on identifying links between the Hariri network and the other attacks it is assisting in investigating, and "where these links are found to exist - the nature and scope of these links."

The chief investigator said the commission also has pursued its investigation into the identification of the suicide bomber. Bellemare said forensic information on the bomber's origin, characteristics and movements has been compared to entry-exit records in Lebanon "as well as the missing persons files of various countries to generate leads on the possible identity of the bomber."

"Based on these leads, DNA profiling is being conducted to further assist the identification," he said.

In previous reports, former chief investigator Serge Brammertz said the suspected suicide bomber did not spend his youth in Lebanon but spent his last two or three months in the country. To determine the man's origins, the commission collected 112 soil and water samples from 28 locations in Syria and Lebanon, and 26 samples from locations in other countries which were not identified.

Based on preliminary results, Brammertz said, the commission's experts believe the man was probably between 20 and 25 years old, with short dark hair, and lived in an urban environment for the first 10 years of his life and in a rural environment during the last 10 years of his life.

The commission also established "a limited number of countries where the suicide bomber could come from," Brammertz said. In his final appearance before the council in December, Brammertz said he is more confident than ever that those allegedly involved in the Hariri assassination will be brought before an international tribunal to face justice.

UN legal chief Nicolas Michel said Thursday the tribunal has received enough funding to keep it running for a year, meeting a key criterion for its final approval.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Lebanon International Tribunal will be setup in February 2008
2007-12-20
The United Nations Security Council and Netherlands are expected to sign this Friday the agreement that establishes Holland as the headquarters for the international Tribunal . The Security council has also already secured the financing for the initial phase of the tribunal and is expected to be able to pick the judges soon . U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad told the Lebanese daily Al Hayat that he expects the International tribunal to be set up by February 2008.

Khalizad was told by U.N. top legal adviser Nicolas Michel that the funds required to initially setup the tribunal have already been secured to enable the court to be setup in February.

The Purpose of the International Tribunal is to try the killers of Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and other Lebanese leaders that were assassinated since. Hariri was assassinated on February 14, 2005 and several other anti-Syrian were assassinated since. The last assassinated leader is army General Francoise Hajj. According to Serge Brammertz , UN Chief investigator the investigation revealed that the crimes were connected. Syria was blamed for the assassinations but it denied any involvement.
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International-UN-NGOs
Carla pained Karadzic and Mladic still at large
2007-12-14
Carla del Ponte said she was pained to be stepping down after eight years as chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor with genocide suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic still at large.

The Swiss made a final appeal to the international community on Thursday to keep up pressure on Belgrade to hand over the Bosnian Serb wartime leader and Mladic, his military chief. "The fact that Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic are still at large is a stain on our work, a stain on all these great achievements," she told a news conference before leaving the job at the end of the month.

She said Mladic -- who is believed to be hiding in Serbia -- would never be arrested if the European Union signed an agreement allowing Serbia to advance in its membership bid. "My biggest fear today is political issues are taking priority over international justice," she said in an allusion to mounting pressure to compensate Serbia for the expected declaration of independence by its province of Kosovo next year.

Del Ponte said she was confident her successor, Belgian Serge Brammertz, would energetically pursue Mladic, Karadzic and the two other ethnic Serb indictees still at large.

The Hague tribunal, which has sentenced 53 and still has proceedings ongoing against 50 accused, is due to wrap up its work in the next couple of years. "The tribunal must not close its doors until all remaining fugitives are brought to justice," Del Ponte said.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Brammertz warns: Hariri killers able to strike again
2007-11-30
U.N. officials investigating the killing of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri warned on Wednesday that those who carried out the attack still had the ability and resources to strike again in Beirut.

In his latest report on the U.N. investigative commission, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said he had made progress on the Hariri investigation in recent months and was able to draw preliminary conclusions about important aspects and to identify more people involved.

Since his last report in July, Brammertz said tension had been high in Lebanon, which is going through a protracted crisis over the election of a president to succeed pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud, whose term expired last week. "The commission notes that evidence uncovered in the Hariri and some of the other attacks, including the recent assassination of Antoine Ghanem, confirms the fact that the perpetrators had and still have advanced and extensive operational capacities available in Beirut," Brammertz said. Ghanem, an anti-Syrian Christian member of parliament, was among seven people killed by a car bomb in September.

Brammertz said the tense security environment was affecting the commission's work and warned that after the failure to elect a president last week, "the prospect of a rapid deterioration cannot be excluded."

WITNESS PROTECTION
Brammertz said the investigative commission needed to restrict the information it made public to avoid jeopardizing the probe and endangering individuals, and he recommended setting up a witness protection program. He said recent developments had led to the identification of "additional persons of interest" but he gave no names.

Brammertz has said in the past that a likely motive for the attack was the role of Hariri, who became a prominent critic of Syria, in support of a 2004 U.N. resolution demanding that Syrian and other foreign troops withdraw from Lebanon. In the latest report, he said Syria had been generally cooperative with the investigation.

Brammertz also is investigating 18 other political murders or attempted murders in Lebanon and he said the commission would focus on establishing links to the Hariri case.

It was Brammertz's last report to the Security Council before his mandate expires at the end of this year, when he will be replaced by Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.

The commission is due to hand over its findings to a special tribunal that is being established in the Netherlands. Starting Jan. 1, Brammertz will take over as prosecutor of the Hague-based international tribunal for former Yugoslavia, replacing Switzerland's Carla Del Ponte. His appointment was approved on Wednesday by the U.N. Security Council.
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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
UN Hariri commission may have located elbow, hot on trail of ...
2007-11-29
A U.N. inquiry has made progress in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, closely examining the possibility that two or more teams may have carried out the attack, the chief investigator said Wednesday. While not identifying anyone, Belgian prosecutor Serge Brammertz said in his final report to the Security Council that progress by the U.N. International Independent Investigation Commission has led to the identification of new "persons of interest" and other new leads.

"The commission has also deepened and broadened its understanding of the possible involvement of a number of persons of interest, including persons who have recently been identified by the commission, who may have been involved in some aspects of the preparation and commission of the crime or who may have known that a plan to carry out the crime was being prepared," Brammertz said.

Brammertz said the commission also confirmed its hypothesis that "operational links may exist" between the perpetrators of 18 other targeted assassinations and bombings in Lebanon, adding that confirming these links and establishing new links will also be a priority in the near future.
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