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The claimant’s father was a French Jew who was interned in France and deported to a concentration camp by the Vichy regime during World War II. The claimant brought proceedings for reparations before the Administrative Tribunal of Paris alleging that the French State and the French railway company that facilitated the transfer and deportation, the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Francais (SNCF) was at fault.

The case was transferred to the Conseil d’Etat, the highest administrative body in France, for advice. The Conseil d’Etat ruled that the acts of the French State, which contributed to the deportation of persons considered as Jews by the Vichy regime, constituted faults for which its responsibility was engaged. The Advice was the first time that the Conseil had ruled that reparation of such exceptional suffering could not be restricted to financial measures: they implied a solemn acknowledgement of the collective prejudice suffered by those persons, because of the role the French State played in their deportation, quoting the 1964 law suppressing time limitation on crimes against humanity, or the 1995 Presidential statement acknowledging the responsibility of the French State.

The Advice is to be eminently helpful for the 400 similar cases currently pending before French administrative courts. 

Zijad Kurtović, a commander of a military police platoon of the Bosnian army, was accused of involvement in war crimes committed during the war between Croatia and Bosnia (1992-1995). More specifically, he was charged with torturing and otherwise inflicting serious mental and physical harm to Croatian civilians and prisoners of war in a Roman Catholic church in October 1993, by beating them, forcing them to eat pages from the Bible, using and ordering others to use Croatian civilians and prisoners of war as human shields on the frontlines, and with forcing two detained HVO soldiers to perform an oral sexual intercourse. In first instance, Kurtović was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment.

Kurtović appealed on several grounds, arguing that the first instance Panel had erred in law (using the wrong law) and in fact (wrongly established certain facts). The prosecution also appealed against the sentence, which was, in its view, too lenient. The Appellate Panel partly agreed with Kurtović where it concerned the classification of the crimes. It could not be established with certainty which victims had been combatants; however, as it was evident that all detained persons were entitled to protection under common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, and that they were to be qualified (as is usual under the law of war in case of doubt) as civilians. However, the findings on the facts remained further unchanged. Therefore, the Appellate Panel amended the conviction to only include war crimes against civilians and the wanton destruction of religious monuments. The prosecutor’s appeal was dismissed; the 11-year prison sentence was upheld.

Vincent Brown aka Vincent Bajinya and three other men claimed asylum in the United Kingdom after the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. In 2006, Rwanda requested extradition of the four men for their alleged involvement in the genocide. On 28 December 2006, the four suspects were arrested in the United Kingdom.

The men appealed their extradition before the High Court. The judges determined that there is a real risk that the four men would not be granted a fair trial in Rwanda, and determined that the suspects could not be extradited to Rwanda. 

Mehura Selimović was born on 4 April 1962, and is a former military, police affairs and counter-intelligence officer of the 5th Corps of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (RBiH). Adil Ružnić was born on 2 August 1967, and is a former Assistant Commander for Security Affairs of the 5th Corps of the Army of RBiH. Emir Mustafić is a former member of the 5th Corps of the Army of RBiH. While holding these positions, they assisted soldiers detaining civilians and members of enemy forces that were no longer fighting in the Adil Bešić military barracks in Bihać, in a camp in the plastic factory in Petrovac, in the Luke prison in Bihać, and in other locations. In these locations, the detainees were held in unhealthy conditions, forced to perform hard work, and subjected to harsh interrogations and physical mistreatment. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina charged Selimović, Ružnić and Mustafić with war crimes against civilians and war crimes against prisoners of war because of their involvement in the crimes.

Blagoje Golubović was born in Strganci, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 18 April 1965. He was charged with participating in the plan of the forces of the Serb Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (later known as Republika Srpska) to kill the non-Serb civilians of the municipality of Foča. Golubović was charged with crimes against humanity.

On 6 July 2009, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina dropped the charges against Golubović. On 10 July 2009, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed a verdict dismissing the charges against Golubović.