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.
Todorović (IT-95-9/1) “Bosanski Šamac”
Trial Judgment: 31 July 2001
Stevan Todorović, the chief of police and member of the Serb Crisis Staff in Bosanski Šamac, located in north-eastern BiH, stood trial for allegedly having planned, instigated, ordered committed or otherwise aided and abetted the planning, preparation, or execution of the forcible take-over by Serb forces of Bosanski Šamac; the murders, sexual assaults, and beatings of Bosnian Muslims and Croats; the unlawful arrest, detention, or confinement of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats; the cruel and inhume treatment of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats; the deportation, forcible transfer, and expulsion of non-Serbs from their homes and villages; and the issuance of orders which violated the rights of the Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Muslim civilians to equal treatment under the law. The prosecution accused him, on the basis of individual and superior criminal liability, of crimes against humanity for persecution, deportation, murder, inhumane acts, rape, and torture, of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions for unlawful deportation, willful killing, willfully causing great suffering, and torture or inhuman treatment, and of violations of the laws or customs of war for murder, cruel treatment, humiliating and degrading treatment, and torture.
In 2001, the Trial Chamber accepted his guilty plea for crimes against humanity for persecution on the basis of politics, ethnicity, or religion. The Trial Chamber sentenced Todorović to 10 years’ imprisonment.