Crime in Dalj
Trial against Željko Čizmić for war crime against civilians stated in Article 120, paragraph 1 of the OKZRH.
THE INDICTMENT (SUMMARY)
The defendant is charged with the following crimes:
In the period between 1 August 1991 and 1 December 1991, during the armed rebellion of a part of the local Serb population in Dalj and Erdut against the legal and constitutional systems of the Republic Of Croatia, the defendant participated in the creation of paramilitary police forces in the region, became the chief commander of the so-called Dalj Police Station and worked on opening prisons in the basement of the Police Station with an aim to create conditions for arrests and imprisonment of non-Serb civilians; he organized, ordered and executed unlawful arrests and imprisonment of a large number of civilians; as the chief commander, he approved of the prisoners being held under inhumane conditions and physically and psychologically tortured by his subordinates and persons unrelated to the Dalj Police Station who could enter the prison whenever they wanted to; on 3 August 1991, he attended the interrogation of prisoners and allowed their torture; in November 1991, he interrogated and beat the arrested civilian Imro Moger at the Erdut Police Station; in mid-August 1991, he drove Ištvan Bačko away from the Dalj prison and robbed him of his money and tools.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Osijek County Court
Case No: K-38/04
War Crime Council: Judge Krunoslav Barkić, Council President; Judges Katica Krajnović and Dubravka Vučetić, Council members; in May 2011, it came to changes in the composition of the Council. Judges Katica Krajnović and Dubravka Vučetić were replaced in their capacity as council members by judges Zvonko Vekić and Ružica Šamota
Indictment No: KT-103/94, issued by the Osijek County State’s Attorney’s Office on 9 July 2004
Prosecuting attorney: Zlatko Bučević, the Osijek County Deputy State’s Attorney
Criminal offence: war crime against civilians pursuant to Article 120, Paragraph 1 of the OKZ RH
Defendant: Željko Čizmić
Defence counsel: Dražen Srb, a lawyer practising in Osijek
Victims:
– beaten: Damir Buljević, Stipo Sušić, Filip Đanko, Tomislav Hajduković, Marko Andabak, Ištvan Bačko, Slavko Palinkaš, Tomislav Kilić, Goran Šlinger, Vlatko Nikolić, Imra Moger
– dispossessed: Ištvan Bačko
MONITORING REPORT
The first session of the main hearing was held on 12 September 2006. Five more sessions followed. However, as the adjournment periods between the sessions were very long, the trial started anew on several occasions.
Following the last session held on 11 December 2007, the main hearing was not scheduled until 8 May 2009 when it started anew. But again there were no trial hearings in the period from 8 May 2009 until 2 June 2011 in that court case.
VERDICT
On 27 December 2011, Osijek County Court’s War Crimes Council rendered the verdict which found the defendant guilty and sentenced him to 1 year and 10 months in prison.
MONITORING OBSERVATIONS
At the first session of the main hearing held on 12 September 2006, after the indictment was read and the defendant Čizmić entered his plea, the defence counsel requested that the public be excluded from a part of the evidence procedure with the explanation that his defendant had a status of protected witness before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague.
If this was true, the defence counsel actually revealed the identity of one of the protected witnesses before the ICTY at the part of the session that was open to the public.
We do not know why the sessions are scheduled so rarely.
