Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
bosnia
Frans Timmermans
Srebrenica
Yugoslavia
Thursday, 21 November 2013 - 12:52
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Foreign Minister urges Bosnia not to free more war criminals

Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans has reacted with shock to the news that Bosnia released ten war criminals. “I urge Bosnia to take measures that prevent that any more war criminals are released. Their release is difficult to understand and very upsetting for the families of the victims. I share their pain,” Timmermans wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday night.

The Bosnian state court on Tuesday quashed verdicts that sentenced the ten men to jail terms ranging from 14 to 33 years in prison, on the grounds that the stricter Bosnian criminal code from 2003 was wrongly used instead of the former Yugoslavia’s more lenient criminal code from 1976. In a statement, the war crimes court said the 10 freed prisoners would no longer be classified as convicts but rather as war crimes indictees as they undergo retrials. The ten released convicts, as well as two others freed on parole earlier, will now have to be retried.

Timmermans said he regretted that Bosnian authorities did not take the time to consider other avenues before releasing the men. The crimes the ten are convicted to have been involved in -the 1995 mass killings of thousands of Muslim men and boys by separatist Bosnian Serb forces- are regarded as the worst atrocity committed on European soil since World War Two.

The release, which cast doubt over a series of war crimes convictions in Bosnia, angered survivors of the massacre. In the wake of Europeanwide condemnation of the move, a Bosnia prosecutor has meanwhile requested that the men be rearrested, fearing they might flee before their appeals cases are reheard.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Arriva wants to take over more than 20 routes from NS
  • COA expects reception for all asylum seekers this weekend
  • Burendag: National Neighbor's Day celebrated across the country
  • VVD Congress bids farewell to Mark Rutte with standing ovation
  • Rotterdam waste processing plant unusable for days after major fire
  • Climate activists block A12 in The Hague for fifteenth day in a row, removed by police

Top stories

  • COA expects reception for all asylum seekers this weekend
  • Climate activists block A12 in The Hague for fifteenth day in a row, removed by police
  • Firefighters busy all night with fire at waste processing plant in Rotterdam and Haelen
  • Election conferences of VVD, CDA, SP and Volt on 'super Saturday'
  • Burnt-out Fremantle Highway cargo ship arrives at Rotterdam port
  • Tata Steel emissions cut lifespan of area residents by 2.5 months, says health institute

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content