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The appellant, Michel Gatera, was convicted by the Court of First Instance of Kibuye of genocide for his role in leading three sisters to a location where he knew they would subsequently be executed by a group of assailants. Two of the sisters died, the third survived as a result of circumstances outside the control of the perpetrators and testified against the appellant at trial. The Court of Appeal of Kigali, however, overturned the conviction and acquitted Gatera on the ground that there was no proof that established that Gatera had indeed led the three victims to their place of execution. The testimonial evidence relied upon by the Court of First Instance was found to be not reliable and contradictory. 

After the takeover of Prijedor (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the attack launched against the town of Kozarac (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in 1992, the non-Serb civilians were detained in several prison facilities, where they were beaten, sexually assaulted, tortured, killed and otherwise mistreated. Duško Tadić was the President of the Local Board of the Serb Democratic Party in Kozarac (Bosnia and Herzegovina). Trial Chamber II found Duško Tadić guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes and, in a separate sentencing judgment, sentenced him to 20 years of imprisonment. The Appeals Chamber found him guilty of additional crimes, and remitted the issue on sentencing to a Trial Chamber. Trial Chamber IIbis sentenced Tadić to 25 years of imprisonment. Tadić appealed against both the sentencing judgment of Trial Chamber II as well as that of Trial Chamber IIbis.

The Appeals Chamber found that Trial Chamber II erred when it ordered that the term of the sentence start after a final determination of an appeal as well as when it did not give credit for the time Tadić spent in custody in Germany.

The Appeals Chamber also upheld Tadić’s argument that crimes against humanity do not attract higher sentence than war crimes. The Appeals Chamber revised the sentence imposed by Trial Chamber IIbis to 20 years of imprisonment.

The Indonesian occupation of East Timor from 1975 until 2002 gave rise to a number of attacks on the Timorese civilian population, particularly against those suspected of being independence supporters. 

The Accused, Leonardus Kasa, was a member of the pro-autonomy Laksaur militia group. He was brought before the Special Panels for Serious Crimes for having allegedly raped an East Timorese woman. He contended that the relationship was not based on coercion and in any event the Special Panels could not hear his case as it fell outside their jurisdiction, the alleged rape having been committed in West Timor. The Special Panels agreed, finding that under the constitutive instruments of the Panels and the applicable law, there was no jurisdiction to try the case. It would have to be dealt with by an Indonesian court. 

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.