War Crimes Prosecutor v. Sinan Morina

Court	District Court in Belgrade, War Crimes Chamber, Serbia-Montenegro
Decision title	Indictment
Decision date	13 July 2005
Parties	Sinan Morina War Crimes Prosecutor
Categories	War crimes
Keywords	civilians, cultural property, Former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, law of armed conflict
Links	Indictment

Summary

Sinan Morina is an ethnic Kosovo Albanian and was a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) during the non-international armed conflict between the KLA, on one side, and the police and military units of the SFR Yugoslavia, on the other. He was charged with participating, together with 34 members of KLA, in the killing of nine Serbian men, expulsion, imprisonment, torture and rape of Serbian civilians, and large-scale destruction of civilian property and religious objects (Orthodox churches St. Spas and St. Nikola) in the village of Opteruša between 17 and 21 July 1998. The purpose of this armed attack was to ethnically cleanse the area from all non-Albanian population and create an ethnically pure Albanian territory.

Morina was acquitted by the Belgrade District Court on 20 December 2007 due to lack of credible evidence. The Supreme Court of Serbia reversed the verdict of the War Crimes Court in 2009 and ordered a re-trial. He was arrested in Croatia on 24 February 2010 following an international arrest warrant issued by the Serbian authorities.

Related developments

Sinan Morina was arrested in Montenegro on 28 December 2006.

The Belgrade District Court acquitted him on 20 December 2007 due to the lack of evidence and failure to determine his participation in the attack, deportation or imprisoning of the civilians.

The Supreme Court of Serbia reversed the verdict of the War Crimes Court on 26 August 2009 and ordered a re-trial. The Court issued an international warrant for his arrest on 30 December 2009 after he left Serbia. Sinan Morina was arrested for the second time by Croatian police on 24 February 2010.

Legally relevant facts

The accused Sinan Morina is an ethnic Kosovo Albanian and was a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a terrorist paramilitary organization which sought the separation of Kosovo from SFR Yugoslavia during the 1990s. The relevant period of the indictment is during the non-international armed conflict between the army and police forces of Yugoslavia and those of KLA.

In the period between 17 and 21 July 1998 Morina was a member of a unit commanded by Halit Dulaku. This unit engaged in a sustained armed assault on several villages in the Orahovac municipality, particularly the village Opteruša. The aim of this action was to forcefully remove the entire non-Albanian population and create an ethnically pure Albanian territory.

The Prosecutor charged Morina with participating, together with 34 members of KLA, in the killing of nine Serbian men, expulsion, imprisonment, torture and rape of Serbian civilians, and large-scale destruction of civilian property and religious objects (Orthodox churches St. Spas and St. Nikola), even though they were protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Second Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. The Prosecutor further added that as a co-perpetrator in concert with other KLA members, Morina acted in a premeditated manner, being aware of his acts and willfully engaging in their commission (p. 7).

Core legal questions

The War Crimes Prosecutor asked the War Crimes Chamber at the District Court in Belgrade to find that Sinan Morina has committed war crimes against the civilian population of the village of Opteruša, Orahovac municipality, in violation of article 142 of the Yugoslav Criminal Act.

Specific legal rules and provisions

Act on Criminal Procedure of Serbia:

Article 46 (duty of the police and other government authorities participating in the preliminary investigation to act pursuant to the Public Prosecutor’s request)
Article 265 (ordering detention in the preliminary investigation)
Article 266 (finding a person in the act of committing a criminal offense)

Criminal Code of SFRY:

Article 22 (complicity)
Article 125 (terrorism)
Article 139 (punishment for the gravest criminal acts)
Article 142 (war crimes against the civilian population)

Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention):

Article 3(1) (conflicts not of an international character)
Article 4(1)-(2) (definition of protected persons)
Article 33 (individual responsibility, collective penalties, pillage, reprisals)
Article 147 (penal sanctions II. grave breaches)

Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II):