Brammertz: Croatia pressuring courts in war crimes cases

REUTERS/Michael Kooren

Croatia must show unambiguous dedication to independent and unbiased processing of war crimes, including cases processing members of Croatian and Bosnian Croat military forces, chief prosecutor for the UN Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals Serge Brammertz said on Thursday.

The Mechanism is an international court established in 2010 to perform the remaining functions of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) after the mandate of the tribunal was completed.

Presenting the six-month report on the Mechanism’s progress to the UN Security Council, Brammertz said that the government of Croatia is continuing to exert political influence on court proceedings by failing to reverse the 2015 decision which ended cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina in criminal cases processing war crimes.

As a result, the Croatian courts process small numbers of criminal cases of war crimes committed by Croatian and Bosnian military forces.

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