THE HAGUE, March 1 - Ingrid Burke, RAPSI. An appeals chamber in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) acquitted General Momčilo Perišić Thursday of an array of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war relating to his work as Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army (VJ) during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.

The ICTY concluded by majority that Perišić should be acquitted due to a lack of evidence supporting a finding of command responsibility, summarizing its conclusion as follows: “Absent a finding of effective control over subordinates, superior responsibility cannot be established. Thus, the Appeals Chamber reverses the Trial Chamber’s finding that Mr. Perišić was liable for failing to punish relevant VJ soldiers serving in the [Army of the Serbian Krajina (SVK)] for their actions during the shelling of Zagreb.”

According to ICTY documents, Perišić was initially indicted by the ICTY in connection with a series of atrocities that occurred in Bosnia and Croatia between August 1993 and November 1995. On August 26, 1993 Perišić took on the role of Chief of Staff, thus becoming the highest-ranking figure in the VJ. At that point, the VJ provided military and logistical support for the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) and the SVK.

Perišić turned himself over to the ICTY in March 2005.

In September 2011, Perišić was convicted of having aided and abetted in a host of war crimes committed by the VRS in Bosnia in Srebrenica and Sarajevo. Specifically, he was convicted on charges of aiding and abetting: “murder, inhumane acts (injuring and wounding civilians, inflicting serious injuries, wounding, and forcible transfer), and persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds as crimes against humanity; and murder and attacks on civilians as violations of the laws or customs of war.” 

He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Perišić appealed on 17 grounds. 

The appeals chamber held Thursday that the trial chamber had erred in establishing that “specific direction” was not an element of the actus reus requirement of aiding and abetting. 

Based on its conclusion that it would not be necessary to consider the element of “specific direction,” the trial chamber deemed Perišić responsible of aiding and abetting based on its findings that he had “made a substantial contribution to these crimes, knew that his aid assisted the crimes in Sarajevo and Srebrenica, and was aware of the general nature of the crimes.”

Finding the case law referenced by the trial chamber in establishing the inapplicability of the “specific direction” element to the present circumstances unconvincing, the appeals chamber reaffirmed the necessity of establishing the element in rendering an aiding and abetting conviction.

After conducting a de novo review of the evidence on record, the appeals court concluded by majority that it was not “convinced that the only reasonable interpretation of the totality of this circumstantial evidence is that Mr. Perišić specifically directed aid towards VRS crimes. Instead, a reasonable interpretation of the record is that VJ aid facilitated by Mr. Perišić was directed towards the VRS’s general war effort rather than VRS crimes.” Thus it had not been established that Perišić’s actions were directly linked with the atrocities in Srebrenica and Sarajevo. 

While a wide variety of means of support can give rise to a conviction for aiding and abetting, “a sufficient link between the acts of an individual accused of aiding and abetting a crime and the crime he or she is charged with assisting must be established for the accused individual to incur criminal liability. Neither the findings of the Trial Chamber nor the evidence on the record in this case prove such a link with respect to Mr. Perišić’s actions.”

In closing, the court ordered Perišić’s immediate release.