Prosecutor v. Tadić (Judgment)

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke up following the end of the Cold War, with various sections—such as Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia—demanding independence. The breakup was, in part, violent, leading to human rights and war crimes, including the massacre of 7,000 Bosnians at Srebrenica. The United Nations Security Council formed the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to address these events. The ICTY accused Dusko Tadić (defendant) of committing war crimes and atrocities. Tadić was apprehended on a visit to Germany and turned over to the ICTY to face trial. The trial chamber found Tadić responsible for, among other crimes, the death of several men in the village of Jaskići. Evidence presented at trial showed that Tadić and other armed men participated in the beating and removal of men in local villages, including the village of Jaskići. Several men were found dead in Jaskići after Tadić’s armed group left the area, but no direct evidence tied Tadić to the deaths. Tadić appealed his judgment to the appeals chamber, which, in its analysis, discussed joint-criminal-enterprise liability, specifically, whether criminal culpability extended to other group members who collectively executed a common criminal plan. The ICTY also considered whether a state could be held responsible for the conduct of a military or paramilitary group, thereby constituting an element of an international armed conflict.