Prosecutor v. Jelisić

Serbian forces imprisoned Brčko’s Muslim leaders and community in detention camps. Goran Jelisić (defendant) commanded one camp, regularly ordering the executions and abuse of Muslim prisoners. The prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia charged Jelisić with 32 war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide. Jelisić pleaded guilty to all the charges except genocide. After the prosecution presented its case at trial, the trial chamber dismissed the genocide charge, finding the evidence could not support a finding that Jelisić had the necessary state of mind—specific intent to eliminate an entire group. The trial chamber acknowledged that Jelisić had threatened to sterilize Muslims to prevent their continued existence, threatened to kill all Muslims, warned the prisoners that only 5 to 10 percent of them would survive the camp, and boasted about his daily killing quota. However, the trial chamber also found that Jelisić was mentally disturbed, sometimes selected prisoners arbitrarily, and had released some Muslims. The trial chamber found that Jelisić was likely a murderer who hated and persecuted Muslims but that the trial evidence presented was not consistent with wanting every single Brčko Muslim dead and therefore could not support a finding that he had specifically intended to commit genocide. Jelisić was sentenced to 40 years for the other crimes. The prosecutor appealed the genocide charge’s dismissal, contending that the trial chamber had failed to adequately consider all the evidence. For example, testimony indicated that Jelisić referred to his plans and desires to exterminate all Muslims in the area on a repeated basis, not just occasionally, and that he frequently executed based on ordered lists. Evidence also showed that the camp’s executions occurred with regularity. The prosecutor argued that this evidence, taken as a whole, showed that Jelisić both was mentally disturbed and had specific genocidal intent. The appeal chamber reviewed the matter.