This case summary is part of a collection of summaries describing the cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). See the Online Resource Hub pages on the ICTY and International Criminal Law, and the table of ICTY case summaries for additional information.
Sikirica et al. (IT-95-8) “Keraterm Camp”
Trial Judgment: 13 November 2001
Duško Sikirica, Commander of Security at the Keraterm detention camp, and Damir Došen and Dragan Kolundžija, a shift leader and shift commander at the Keraterm camp, stood trial for allegedly having instigated, committed or otherwise aided and abetted the persecutions of Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats and other non-Serbs in the Prijedor area through their direct participation in crimes and through their instigation, approval, encouragement, acquiescence, and assistance in the development and continuation of the conditions in the Keraterm camp. The prosecution accused Sikirica on the basis of individual and superior criminal responsibility with genocide and complicity to commit genocide, crimes against humanity for persecution, murder, and inhumane acts, and violations of the laws or customs of war for outrages upon personal dignity, murder or alternatively cruel treatment; the prosecution accused Došen and Kolundžija on the basis of individual and superior criminal liability, with crimes against humanity for persecution, and inhumane acts, Došen with torture and Kolundžija with murder, and violations of the laws or customs of war for outrages upon personal dignity, Došen for torture and cruel treatment and Kolundžija with murder.
In 2001, the Trial Chamber accepted the guilty pleas and statements of guilt for the three defendants, in which the three individually pled guilty on the basis of individual and superior criminal responsibility to persecution as a crime against humanity. The Trial Chamber sentenced Sikirica to 15 years’ imprisonment, Došen to five years’ imprisonment, and Kolundžija to three years’ imprisonment.