Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Marinko Marić

Court	Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Section I for War Crimes, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Case number	KT-RZ 90/05
Decision title	Indictment
Decision date	22 December 2006
Parties	Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina Marinko Marić
Categories	War crimes
Keywords	War crimes; civilians; former Yugoslavia; illegal detention; murder
Links	Indictment

Procedural history

Marić was indicted on 22 December 2006, and the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) confirmed the indictment four days later, on 26December 2006. Marić is yet at large; hence, no proceedings against him could have taken place.

Legally relevant facts

The indictment against Marić alleged that he, in the second half of 1993, in the Gabela detention camp in the Čapljina municipality (BiH), both as member of the “Knez Domagoj” Brigade of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO) and as interrogator for the Brigade’s Security and Intelligence Service (SIS), gravely violated the laws of war as enshrined in the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Geneva Convention IV). The indictment claimed that Marić, inter alia, following the interrogation of two prisoners on 10 August 1993 in the Gabela detention camp, ordered that one of the prisoners, who was lying in a pool of blood, unconscious and with a cracked skull, had to be taken out in front of the building and that water from plastic jugs had to be poured down his throat, after which the prisoner died. The indictment furthermore alleged that he, on 30 September 1993, together with Nikola Andrun and another person, took part in the beating and torturing of a prisoner. For these crimes, he was charged with war crimes against civilians under Article 173(1) of the BiH Criminal Code (CC BiH) in conjunction with subparagraphs c (killings, intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain or suffering upon a person (torture), inhuman treatment) and e (unlawful bringing in concentration camps and other illegal arrests and detention).