Omarska Camp - Trials

Trials

"We were able to establish that the Omarska camp was one of the most brutal and cruel camps that had been established during the wars in the former Yugoslavia."

Bob Reid, Deputy Chief of Investigations, ICTY Office of the Prosecutor

The Republika Srpska officials responsible for running the camp have since been indicted and found guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

  • Commanders of the camp, Miroslav Kvočka, Dragoljub Prcač, Milojica Kos, and Mlađo Radić, and a local taxi driver, Zoran Žigić were all found guilty of crimes against humanity. Kvočka, Prcač, Kos and Radić were sentenced to five, six, seven and 20 years respectively; Žigić was given the longest term of 25 years.
  • Željko Mejakić was found guilty of crimes against humanity (murder, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution, and other inhumane acts). He was the de facto commander of Omarska camp and perpetrated one instance of mistreatment. It was found the he was part of a joint criminal enterprise with the intent of promoting mistreatment and persecution of detainees in the camp. He was sentenced to 21 years of imprisonment.
  • Momčilo Gruban was found guilty of crimes against humanity (murder, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution, and other inhumane acts). He had command responsibility for crimes committed at the camp and acted as part of a joint criminal enterprise. He was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment.
  • Duško Knežević was found guilty of crimes against humanity (murder, torture, sexual violence, persecution, and other inhumane acts). He was found to have been directly involved in the crimes carried out in the Omarska and Keraterm camps. He was also found guilty under the theory of joint criminal enterprise for furthering the Omarska and Keraterm camps’ systems of mistreatment and persecution of detainees. He was sentenced to 31 years imprisonment.

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