JUDGMENT FOR GENERAL PERISIC ON TUESDAY

The judges are set to hand down their judgment to Momcilo Perisic, former chief of the VJ General Staff, on Tuesday, 6 September 2011. The prosecution case will continue at the trial of former RS president Radovan Karadzic. At the trial of VRS general Zdravko Tolimir, the prosecution will also continue calling evidence. The defense case of Stojan Zupljanin, former chief of the Banja Luka police, is set to begin

The judges are set to hand down their judgment to Momcilo Perisic, former chief of the VJ General Staff, on Tuesday, 6 September 2011. The indictment charged Perisic in 13 counts with providing personnel, financial, logistical and other support to the Serb armies in Bosnia and Croatia. As the prosecution alleged, Perisic thus made a significant contribution to the crimes those forces committed in Sarajevo, Srebrenica and Zagreb from August 1993 to the end of the war in 1995.
The prosecution has called for a life sentence for General Perisic, while the defense asked that the former VJ chief be acquitted on all counts in the indictment. The trial opened in October 2008 and lasted about 200 working days. The prosecution called 94 witnesses; the defense for its part called about 30 witnesses.
The defense of Stojan Zupljanin, former chief of the Banja Luka police, is set to begin its case on Monday. Zupljanin is on trial with Mico Stanisic, the first Bosnian Serb police minister; they are charged with crimes committed by Serb forces against Croats and Muslims in 20 BH municipalities from April to late December 1992. Zupljanin’s defense has indicated it would call 24 witnesses. The Trial Chamber granted the defense 64 hours to examine its witnesses.
Radovan Karadzic will continue his cross-examination of Sefik Hurka on Monday. Serb soldiers under the command of Rajko Kusic arrested Hurka in August 1992 and brutally abused him on several locations in the Rogatica region. Hurka began his evidence on Friday but his cross-examination was postponed until Monday because the prosecution disclosed the witness’s statement to the defense with delay. The former RS president is charged with double genocide and other crimes in BH.
At the trial of Zdravko Tolimir, Mladic’s former assistant for intelligence and security, the prosecution will call its penultimate witness, set to testify via video link. Tolimir is on trial for genocide and other crimes in Srebrenica and Zepa in the summer of 1995.
The trial of former chiefs of the Serbian State Security Service Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will continue on 4 October 2011. The judges ordered a one month break to allow Stanisic’s defense to make some additional preparations for its case.