here - Humanitarian Law Center/Fond za humanitarno pravo

suspension were not met, a view held by the VSS, given its decision of 23 March 2000 to reverse
the judgment.
After the VSS reversed the first-instance judgment and ordered retrial, all that the District
Prosecutor’s Office in Prokuplje did was to change some factual allegations in the charges on 10
August 2000. Following the retrial at the District Court in Prokuplje, 92 Miloš Lukić was
convicted on 7 July 2001 and sentenced to a prison term below the statutory minimum (18
months). This decision, in terms of the factual background established and its ambiguity and
inconsistency, is in essence identical to the initial first-instance decision. In deciding upon
appeals lodged both by the parties and ex officio, the VSS made the only right decision that could
have been made, and ruled on 2 April 2002 to set aside this judgment. The documentation
currently available to the HLC does not allow for any further analysis of proceedings.
It is not known whether the TRZ ever expressed interest in taking over the criminal prosecution
in this case. It has become clear that the acts of the accused contain all the elements of the
criminal offence defined as a war crime against the civilian population, the processing of which
falls within the responsibility of the TRZ. 93 Regardless of the view of the TRZ, this situation
could be changed if the Prosecutor’s Office prosecuting this case, changes the legal qualification
of the offence and if the courts hearing this case declare themselves as not having jurisdiction to
adjudicate in this matter, something which could be done before the end of the proceedings.
2. Cases that resulted in first-instance judgments during 2012
2.1. Bijeljina 94
On 4 June 2012, the Higher Court in Belgrade delivered a judgment convicting the accused -
Dragan Jović, Zoran Đurđević and Alen Ristić - of a war crime against civilians 95 and sentencing
Dragan Jović to 15 years, Zoran Đurđević to 13 years and Alen Ristić to 12 years in prison. 96
92 Chamber presided over by judge Aleksandar Stojanović.
93 Articles 2 and 4 of the Law on Organisation and Jurisdiction of Government Bodies in the Proceedings against
War Crime Perpetrators (Official Gazette of the RS No.s. 67/2003, 135/2004, 61/2005, 101/2007 and 104/2009).
94 K.Po2 7/2011.
95 Article 142 (1) of the CC of the FRY, in conjunction with Article 22 of the CC of the FRY.
96 This case was transferred to Serbia from the judiciary of BiH.
38