The European Court of Human Rights issued a decision today in the case of Maktouf and Damjanovic v Bosnia and Herzegovina. Maktouf and Damjanovic were both convicted of war crimes by the Court of BiH; their suit argued that they should not have been tried under the 2003 BiH criminal code because it was not in force at the time their crimes were committed. In today’s decision the Court of Human Rights agreed with them, and awarded them damages.
In its verdict, the Strasbourg court said that the Bosnian state court had sentenced Maktouf to five years’ imprisonment, the lowest possible sentence under the 2003 code, while under the 1976 criminal code, he could have been sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.
Similarly, Damjanovic had been sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment, slightly above the minimum of ten years, while under the 1976 criminal code, it would have been possible to impose a sentence of only five years.
The court’s decision stated, however, that other war crimes cases tried under the 2003 criminal code will have to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The court also rejected part of Mr. Maktouf’s suit, in which he claimed that his human rights had been violated because of the presence of judges on the BiH court that were appointed by the High Representative rather than BiH authorities.
