Dragan Jokic

Dragan Jokić (born August 20, 1957 in Zvornik , Yugoslavia ) was officer and chief of the engineering troops of the Zvornik Brigade in July 1995. It was approved by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague for the Srebrenica massacre accused. Jokić surrendered to the authorities voluntarily, was sentenced to nine years in prison on January 17, 2005 and released early on January 13, 2010.

prehistory

In July 1995, 30 buses carrying around 7,000 Bosnian Muslims left the small town of Bratunac in eastern Bosnia and took the men to internment camps. They were mainly housed in the schools in Grbavci , Petkovci and Pilica . In the days that followed, they were transported in small groups and blindfolded to neighboring fields and executed. The dead were buried in mass graves .

500 Bosnian Muslims were executed in the Pilica cultural center. Trucks and excavators stood ready to dig mass graves and transport the corpses, a task that Zvornik's technical department had already taken on several times. Dragan Jokić was the head of this department.

accusation

Dragan Jokić was accused under Paragraph 1 of the ICTY Statute of having known of the planned crimes. He is said to have known that he was said to have had mass graves dug with heavy earth-moving machines and excavators. He was also charged with participating in the planning and organization. The coordination of communication between the officers and the command unit was also one of his tasks and made the act possible. He also reported on the operation in progress reports.

The Hague Criminal Court tried him on May 15, 2001 and Jokić surrendered to the authorities on August 15, 2001. He was transferred to the criminal court in The Hague on the same day.

On January 10, 2002, Jokić applied for temporary release. This was rejected on March 28, 2002. On April 18, 2002, he was given permission to file a new motion, which the May 28, 2002 court approved. On April 11, 2003, the court overturned this decision and Jokić was arrested again.

Negotiation and judgment

Jokić appeared in court for the first time on August 21, 2001 and was charged together with Vidoje Blagojevic, a process that was brought together under the heading "Srebrenica".

The court consisted of the Chinese presiding judge Liu Daqun, the Ukrainian judge Volodymyr Vassylenko and the judge Carmen Maria Argibay from Argentina. The prosecutors were Peter McCloskey, Antoinette Issa and Stefan Waespi. Jokić's defense was taken over by Miodrag Stojanovic and Branko Lukic.

The prosecution presented their charges between May 14, 2003 and February 27, 2004, and the defense presented their evidence between July 1 and 23, 2004. The prosecution requested a prison sentence of 15 to 20 years.

Dragan Jokić pleaded innocent.

The court visited the crime scenes to better understand the incidents described. It concluded that Jokić's role was not as significant as it was initially thought. He was only given orders and had no authority. By sending machines, however, Jokić made burial in mass graves possible in the first place and thus made the act easier. The court found Jokić not guilty of murder in terms of crimes against humanity.

The verdict is based on Jokić being found guilty of the following crimes on the basis of Article 7 Paragraph 1 of the ICTY Statute:

• Murder (violation of the laws of war)
• Extermination (crimes against humanity)
• Persecution (crimes against humanity)

On January 17, 2005, Dragan Jokić was sentenced to 9 years in prison. The judgment was upheld by the Appeals Chamber on May 9, 2007. He was released early on January 13, 2010.

Web links

• Page about Dragan Jokić at Trial Watch
• The Hague Justice Portal Jokic, Dragan