Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Gen. Zdravko Tolimir dies in Hague Tribunal jail


Former Army of the Serb Republic (VRS) in Bosnia-Herzegovina Gen. Zdravko Tolimir passed away in the night between Monday and Tuesday.
Source: Vecernje novosti, Tanjug
(Tanjug, file)
(Tanjug, file)
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Tolimir died in a prison cell of the Hague Tribunal, the RS Veteran Organization told Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti.
The cause of death has not been stated.

On Tuesday, the Tribunal (ICTY) confirmed that Tolimir had passed away and said in a statement that a prison doctor had been called to his cell immediately and that Dutch authorities launched standard mandatory investigations.

In addition, President of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague Theodor Meron ordered "a comprehensive investigation into the death of Zdravko Tolimir."

During the 1990s war in Bosnia, Tolimir was the intelligence and security affairs assistant to then VRS commander Gen. Ratko Mladic, who is also on trial at the Hague Tribunal.

A trial chamber in 2012 sentenced Tolimir to life in prison after finding him guilty of being a member of a joint criminal enterprise aimed at killing Muslim prisoners from Srebrenica and expelling civilians from this region.

The tribunal also found that Tolimir - who was arrested and extradited in 2007 - was present in Zepa in 1995 "and not only knew what was happening in that town by also shared genocidal intent and personally suggested the killing of refugees, and then helped cover up the crime."

In 2015, an appeals chamber found that Tolimir took part in two joint criminal enterprises - the killing of men in Srebrenica, and the forcible deportation of Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica and Zepa, and confirmed the verdict finding him guilty of conspiracy to commit genocide, extermination, murder, persecution, and inhumane treatment.

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