Prosecutor, Indictee and Defence Attorney Fail to Appear

As said by Appellate Chamber Chairman Mirko Bozovic, the Prosecutor was informed about the hearing, and so was Defence attorney Adil Lozo, who said that he was not able to appear, because he had multiple bone fractures caused by a fall. 

According to the Chamber’s records, indictee Maktouf was not properly informed about the Appellate Chamber’s session.

The trial of Maktouf was renewed, because the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina determined that, during the first instance trial, which lasted from 2004 to 2006, the Court wrongly applied the Criminal Code of BiH instead of the Criminal Code of the former Yugoslavia, which is more favourable for perpetrators. 

Following the Constitutional Court’s decision, the trial was renewed, but only the part related to the application of the law, and Maktouf was sentenced, at the end of the first instance trial, to five years in prison according to the Criminal Code of the former Yugoslavia.

The same sentence was pronounced in 2006 as well.

Maktouf was found guilty of having assisted members of “El Mujaheed” Unit in the unlawful arrests, detention and kidnapping of five Croat civilians in 1993.

After he had served his imprisonment sentence, Maktouf was deprived of Bosnian citizenship. He then left the country. He currently lives in Malaysia. He was allowed to be present in BiH in order to attend his retrial.

A new date for the Appellate Chamber’s session will be set at a later stage.