Hague tribunal still without verdict for provisional release of detainees

The international mechanism left by the past for criminal courts (heritor of The Hague Tribunal), for Radio Free Europe, has confirmed that a prisoner in the Dutch prison in Scheveningen, on March 18th, has been diagnosed with coronary, but that it is not about the prisoner who is currently under the authority of the Mechanism in the United Nations Pre-burg Unit, located in special prison units.

The patient has had no contact with prisoners currently arrested at The Hague detention centre. The mechanism takes every possible measure to protect those arrested from exposure to” infection, Mechanism spokeswoman Helena Iglston told Radio Free Europe.

It has added that similar measures have been taken with the aim of protecting pre-prisoned health in the Arushe Pre- Hamil Unit in Tanzania, where the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda is, while the Tanzanian detention authorities, from March 19th onward, have banned all visits to prisons.

“Mechanism does not have information about possible cases for COVID-19 in national prisons, where convicted persons, according to its intelligence, are serving their sentences from prisoner”, Iglston said.

Defence lawyers seek release of prisoners

The Defence Council Association in front of the International Court (ADC-ICT) has requested from the presidential mechanism, Judge Carmel Agius, who because of the pandemic of the Coronavirus <x1) urgently approved early or temporary release for prisoners”.

“All prisoners serving the sentence in Europe and Benin (Western Africa) are elderly prisoners, and for this reason they are particularly vulnerable. If they become infected with coronarys while in prison, their lives will be endangered. Given that many of them have suffered two-thirds of their sentence, and judicial practices have been regulated that the person who has suffered two-thirds of the sentence has the right to apply for early release”.

“Mechanism president must immediately approve the early release of these prisoners, especially those who are already awaiting the decision of Constitutional President”, announced by the Defence Council Association before the International Court.

The defenders demanded from the president of the Mechanism that convicts, who have not yet suffered two-thirds of the sentence, be released on condition, with regular report by the Secretariat for individual detention units in order to ensure that their return is realised when the situation is completely secure.

Mechanism president considering request

In the REL question, what will be the answer to the demands of the Protection Association, Mechanism spokeswoman Helena Iglston points out that “this case is in the competency of judicial organs which the president of the Constitution is currently considering” of which at this moment are unable to comment.

Iglston has added that because of the Corleone pandemic “The United Nations' Pre-prisonment Unit at The Hague, in co-ordination with Dutch prison service, has undertaken a series of issues aimed at protecting pre-meditators”.

The “since Saturday, March 14, 2020, has been suspended until another decision, all activities and services not considered to be urgent and necessary, including visits to the detainee”.

“also, the Mechanism regularly conducts checks for implementation of sentences in order to ensure that conditions in prisons for persons serving sentences in the states of Europe and Africa are in line with international standards for prisons as well as relevant human rights standards”, Iglston said.

“Since the presentation of the COVID -19 pandemic, the commitment mechanism is conveying the development of the situation to all states in which prison sentences are served, for what there is full co-operation with relevant national authorities, the Mechanism's spokeswoman announced.

She added that the well-being of those arrested has a priority from the Mechanism and that the court is “aware of the risks COVID-19 poses for the detainees, given their age and health profile, as well as the history of their possible diseases”.

Who is in the United Nations detention unit?

Five people are under the authority of the Mechanism and in the Scheveningen Pre-migration Unit, among them are Ratko Mladic, Radovan Karadzic and Milivoj Petkovovic.

Ratko Mladic, former commander of the Republika Srpska Army, was sentenced for the first time by The Hague tribunal in November 2017 to life in prison after being convicted of genocide in Srebrenica, for the persecution of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Bosniaks and Croats, for terrorising the population in Sarajevo, for firing and shooting snipers, and for kidnapping UNPRFOR members from 1992 to 1995.

The hearings for defence complaints and prosecution in the first-instance indictment were scheduled for March 17 and 18th 2020, but the Mechanism announced several days ago (on March 11th) that the procedures were delayed due to Mladic's health condition.

Mladic has been in custody in Scheveningen since the end of May 2011, after he was arrested by Serbia's power on May 26th that same year in the Lazzareve village near Zrenjanin, about 80km north of Belgrade.

Karadzic is awaiting transfer to serve his sentence.

After being sentenced in March 2019 to life in prison for genocide in Srebrenica, persecution throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, the terrorisation of Sarajevo citizens and the hostage of UNPROFOR members, former president of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Radovan Karadzic, is still pending in the Scheveningen detention unit to be transferred to one of the prisons of UN member states that have signed agreements with Tribunal.

Karadzic was imprisoned in Serbia on July 21st 2008 after hiding in Belgrade. Nine days later, he was transferred to The Hague Tribunal. His trial began on October 26, 2009, during which the 586 witnesses in the courtroom heard testimony.

Former Chief of Staff of Croatian Defence Council (HVO) Milivoj Petkoviqi, in November 2017, has been proven to be a first-degree indictment, under which, due to crimes against Bosniaks in 1993 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. He's waiting for Scheveningen to be extradited to the state where I will serve my sentence.

Stanisishiqi and Simatovici on parole

Before the Mechanism in The Hague, further procedures are continuing against former Serbia State Security Chief Jovica Stanisic and that service employee Franco Simatovic because of war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Serbia's authorities, Stanisicchi and Simatovic, arrested and extradited them to The Hague in the spring of 2003, shortly after the assassination of Serbia's prime minister, Zoran Djindjic.

After the first trial, which in the first attempt was unsuccessful, The Hague's first instance of Tribunal, freed Stanisic and Simatovic in May 2013 as innocent from all 5 points of the indictment. However, the Tribunal Appeals College approved in December 2015, the fundamental reasons for the prosecution's complaint filed against this act, disrupting the liberation act and ordered the process to be turned into retrial.

Stanisishiqi has been released on parole because of his state of health since the summer of 2017, which has been continued several times. Under the Mechanism's recent decision, it will remain on parole in Serbia until April 30th 2020.

According to the Mechanism's decision of March 12th 2020, Franco Simatovic, who so far was present in the trial, is temporarily on freedom until April 23, 2020.

Stanishiqi and Simatovici are in Belgrade, while the Government of Serbia has guaranteed them.

Authorities in Belgrade have sometimes asked the United Nations that prisoners who were tried before The Hague's Tribunal, who are citizens of Serbia, their sentences suffer in Serbia.

Hague convicts in 14 countries' prisons

More than 60 convicted by the Tribunali have either suffered or are still serving the sentences for crimes during the war in the former Yugoslavia in 14 UN member states that have signed agreements with Tribunal.

The detention conditions in Estonia, Portugal, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain, France, Austria, Norway, Ireland, Italy, Poland, and Germany are supervised by the Court's president.