Citation: IT-98-30/1
Link to the full case: http://www.icty.org/case/kvocka/4
Trial Judgment: 2 November 2001
Appeal Judgment: 28 February 2005
Miroslav Kvočka was a professional police officer attached to the Omarska police station. He participated in the operation of the Omarska camp as a deputy commander of the guard service. Dragoljub Prcać was a retired police officer and crime technician at the Omarska police station. He served as administrative aide to the commander of the Omarska camp. Milojica Kos was a guard shift leader in the Omarska camp. Mlađo Radić was a professional police officer at the Omarska police station and shift leader at the Omarska camp. Zoran Žigić was a taxi driver who was mobilized to serve as a reserve police officer who briefly worked at the Keraterm camp and specifically entered Omarska and Trnopolje with the purpose of abusing and killing prisoners. All of them were tried for allegedly having instigated, committed or otherwise aided and abetted the persecution of Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serbs in the Prijedor area including by participation in various crimes and continuation of the conditions in the camp.
The prosecution accused all defendants of individual criminal responsibility for inhumane acts as a crime against humanity and outrages upon personal dignity as a violation of the laws or customs of war; Žigić with individual criminal responsibility, and Kvočka, Prcać, Kos, and Radić with individual and superior criminal responsibility, for crimes against humanity for persecution, murder, and torture; and violations of the laws or customs of war for murder, torture, and cruel treatment; and Radić with individual criminal responsibility for rape as a crime against humanity.
In 2001, the Trial Chamber convicted Kvočka, Prcać, Kos, and Radić as members of a criminal enterprise acting with individual criminal responsibility of murder and torture as violations of the laws or customs of war and persecution as a crime against humanity. Žigić was convicted for murder and cruel treatment as violations of the laws or customs of war and persecution as a crime against humanity. The Appeals Chamber upheld all the appellants’ appeals and upheld the findings of the Trial Chamber except with regards to the conclusion that Žigić participated in a joint criminal enterprise, and quashed his convictions for crimes committed at the Omarska camp “in general,” while maintaining his convictions for specific crimes. Kvočka was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment, Prcać to five years’ imprisonment, Kos to six years’ imprisonment, Radić to 20 years’ imprisonment, and Žigić to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Summary based on notes from the IJRC