A relative of the wife of war crimes defendant Ratko Mladic has entered into a plea agreement with the Serbian war crimes prosecution, admitting that he hid the former Bosnian Serb commander.
Miroslav Jegdic, a brother of Ratko Mladic’s wife , has pleaded guilty to the charge of hiding the former Bosnian Serb army chief while he was on the run from the Hague Tribunal, in exchange for a suspended prison sentence, the Serbian War Crime Prosecutor’s Office announced on Thursday.
The Higher Court sentenced him to six months in prison or two year suspended sentence.
Mladic was hiding in Miroslav Jegdic’s house in the Belgrade suburb of Velika Mostanica, in 2006, from February to mid April.
On August 15, the Serbian Higher Court sentenced Ratko Mladic’s cousin, Branislav Mladic. It was the first sentence passed by the Serbian courts against Mladic’s accomplices, who helped him to evade arrest.
The prosecutor's office is also investigating six people suspected of helping Mladic, and another ICTY indictee, Stojan Zupljanin, hide; while pre-trial proceedings are underway against seven more individuals.
Additionally, ten more people are currently on trial for the second time in front of Serbia’s General Court for hiding Mladic. The verdict from 2010 that acquitted them was quashed and the case was sent to retrial.
Discovering the network of people who helped Mladic hide is still an ongoing issue between Serbia and the Hague Tribunal, ICTY.
At the beginning of June, the ICTY’s Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz’s presented his biannual report to the UN Security Council and expressed concern regarding Serbia’s delay in identifying all those who helped hide Mladic for so long.
Mladic is currently on trial before the ICTY. He is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the Srebrenica genocide, committed during the Bosnian war.
In July 1995 Srebrenica was shelled and occupied by the Army of Republic of Srpska,VRS, despite being declared a protected area by the United Nations. More than 7,000 people were killed, the victims of genocide.
Key dates and events in the Bosnia war.
The Bosnian Serb commander’s role in the genocide committed in Srebrenica is described in detail in many indictments and verdicts pronounced before local and international judicial institutions.