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In April 1992, the Serb forces gained control over the municipality of Prijedor in Bosnia and Herzegovina, capturing non-Serb men, women and children. The captured non-Serbs were taken to detention camps, such as the Keraterm factory outside the town of Prijedor (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The detainees were subjected to beatings, mistreatments and inhumane conditions. Between June and August 1992, Predrag Banović was a guard at the Keraterm camp. On 26 June 2003, Banović pleaded guilty to the crime against humanity of persecutions, and Trial Chamber III found him guilty accordingly.

In order to determine the appropriate sentence for Banović, the Trial Chamber balanced the gravity of the crime with the aggravating and mitigating circumstances. The Trial Chamber held that the crimes committed by Banović were of utmost gravity. Banović’s position of superiority over the detainees, the vulnerability of the victims, and the context in which the crimes were committed, were considered by the Trial Chamber as reflecting the gravity of the offence.

Furthermore, the Trial Chamber considered that Banović abused his authority over the detainees, which constituted an aggravating factor. Relevant mitigating factors were Banović’s guilty plea, his expression of remorse, and his personal circumstances.

The Trial Chamber sentenced Banović to 8 years of imprisonment.

From 1975 until 2002, Indonesia illegally occupied East Timor. Throughout this period, a number of pro-independence groups formed in order to fight for Timorese independence and combat the abuses perpetrated by members of the Indonesian armed forces and the pro-autonomy militia groups with whom they allied themselves.

One such pro-independence group was the Forcas Armadas de Libertacao Nacional de Timor Leste (FALINTIL). In September 1999, three members of the group, imcluding Carlos Soares, were travelling under orders to a village when they were joined by a fourth individual. Seemingly randomly and without reason, Soares stabbed the fourth member of the group through the back using his spear. The victim died. The Special Panels for Serious Crimes convicted Soares of premeditated murder contrary to the Indonesian Penal Code. His sentence was reduced to 4 year 6 months’ impirosnment, however, on account of his diminished mental capacity at the time of the act. The Court took into consideration his sense of grief, loneliness and sadness as a result of the deaths of 6 of his relatives one or two days prior to the murder. 

East Timor was occupied by Indonesia from 1975 until it achieved independence in 2002. Throughout this time, the Indonesian Armed Force (TNI) and numerous militia groups perpetrated a nationwide campaign to terrorise the civilian population, particularly independence supporters.

Soares was a village-level commander in the TNI, in command of Timorese members of the TNI. In April 1999, he and other TNI members encountered a group of anti-resistance supporters. The three that did not manage to escape were taken away on the orders of Soares and repeatedly beaten with iron bars, machetes and knives and burned with hot belt buckles. One victim died, a second succeeded in escaping, and a third was released following the intervention of a family member. Soares was convicted of the crimes against humanity of murder, torture and persecution and sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment. His was the first trial of a TNI member by the Special Panels for Serious Crimes. 

During Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor from 1975 until East Timorese independence in 2002, the Indonesian Armed Forces along with a number of militia groups promoted Indonesian autonomy through violent means.

The Accused was forced to join the Laksaur militia group in 1999 and, in the course of his membership, perpetrated a number of crimes against supporters of East Timorese independence. The Special Panels for Serious Crimes convicted and sentenced the Accused to 9 years’ imprisonment for the stabbing to death by machete of three victims, the beating of numerous villagers, and the enforced disappearance of another victim who was wounded, taken out to a forest and left there. At sentencing, the Court took into consideration the frailty and sickness of the Accused who was by now 55 years old, his expression of regret at the crimes, and his having pleaded guilty. It also took into consideration the brutality of the crimes and the Accused’s apparent lack of humanity when committing them.