Milan i Sredoje Lukić u sudnici Tribunala

The appeals judgment for Milan and Sredoje Lukic for crimes against Muslims in Visegrad will be delivered ‘just before or immediately after’ the Tribunal’s summer recess, Judge Mehmet Guney said at the appellate status conference. The summer recess this year begins on 20 July 2012.

In June 2009, the Trial Chamber convicted Milan and Sredoje Lukic of crimes in Visegrad in 1992. The first accused Milan Lukic was sentenced to life for crimes including two ‘living pyres’ when more than 100 women, children and elderly were burned to death, and the executions of civilians on the Drina river bank. Sredoje Lukic was given 30 years in prison as an accomplice in the incident in which civilians were set on fire in the house in Pionirska Street. In their appeals, the defense called for a reversal of the Trial Chamber’s judgment or milder sentences. The prosecution asked the judges to confirm life sentence for Milan Lukic and a harsher sentence for Sredoje Lukic.

When the judges enquired about his health, Milan Lukic said briefly ‘I feel a burden on my soul and heart’. For seven years, Lukic has been trying to prove that ‘I don’t have blue eyes, birthmarks on my face or tattoos’. Some prosecution witnesses described Milan Lukic as a man with fair hair, blue eyes with a birthmark on his face and a tattoo on his body. Sredoje Lukic didn’t have any complaints about the conditions of his detention or health, describing it as ‘regular and normal’.

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