International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY): Miroslav Bralo ("Cicko") Pleads Guilty
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On Tuesday 19 July 2005, Miroslav Bralo pled guilty to eight counts before the ICTY, Trial Chamber I. The offenses include:
- one count of persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds, a crime against humanity,
- one count of murder, a violation of the laws or customs of war,
- one count of torture or inhuman treatment, a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions,
- one count of torture, a violation of the laws or customs of war,
- one count of outrages upon personal dignity including rape, a violation of the laws or customs of war,
- two counts of unlawful confinement, a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions,
- one count of inhuman treatment, a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.[1]
Miroslav Bralo also known as "Cicko", was a member of the 4th Military Police Battalion of the Croatian Defense Council (HVO), also known as the "Jokers." From January 1993 until mid-July 1993, the HVO engaged in an armed conflict with Bosnia and Herzegovina government forces. The HVO attacked villages inhabited by Bosnian Muslims in the Lašva River Valley region in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. These attacks resulted in the death and wounding of numerous civilians. Additionally, other civilians were subject to detention, transport, torture, and other physical and mental abuse.
Specifically, the indictment alleges that "on 16 April 1993, Miroslav Bralo participated, with others, in the surprise attack on the village of Ahmici. The purpose and objective of the attack were to ethnically cleanse the village, to kill all the Muslim males of military age, to burn all Muslim residences, and to forcibly expel all the Muslim residents from the village."[2] The indictment also specifically charges Miroslav Bralo with the confinement and repeated rape and torture of a Bosnian Muslim woman and also alleges that Bralo "individually and in concert with others did use and participated in the using of civilians as "human shields" in forcing Bosnian Muslim civilians to dig trenches on the front lines to protect HVO soldiers from gun fire by ABiH snipers".[3]
A tentative date of 10 October 2005 for the Sentencing Hearing has been suggested by Trial Chamber I of the ICTY.
[1] ICTY, "Miroslav Bralo Pleads Guilty," CT/MOW/990e (19 July 2024) <http://www.un.org/icty/latest/index.htm>.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.