PETRONIJEVIĆ: GENERAL MILOŠEVIĆ HAS FULFILLED ALL REQUIREMENTS FOR RELEASE

BELGRADE, JUNE 14 /SRNA/ - Attorney Goran Petronijević stated that retired VRS General Dragomir Milošević is one of the most wrongfully convicted individuals by the Hague Tribunal and that, given he has served two-thirds of his sentence, his recent third request for early release should be granted.

Petronijević emphasized that the majority of the accusations against Milošević were later dismissed, but no one takes that into account. “It was proven that all the claims regarding Sarajevo were lies, yet the general was sent to a prison in Estonia, where the incarceration conditions haven’t changed since Stalin’s era,” Petronijević told SRNA. He pointed out that none of the countries which accepted to incarcerate persons convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia meet proper standards - except for Norway and Finland. Petronijević added that according to the previous practice of the Hague Tribunal, General Milošević should be released now that he has served two-thirds of his sentence, provided the sentence was carried out in accordance with the rules, which it was. However, that practice has changed over the last six years, ever since Carmel Agius became the tribunal's president. According to Petronijević, Agius is the most loyal follower and supporter of his predecessor, Theodor Meron. “Somewhere in their joint actions, it was decided that no one would receive early release anymore unless they express a positive attitude toward the victims and a negative stance toward the crime. In doing this, they’re trying to validate their own unlawful conduct by saying, ‘See, he admitted guilt,’ and in the end, no one is released,” said Petronijević. He emphasized that this kind of treatment currently affects 13 Serb convicts. Petronijević also recalled that the court previously exploited the mental condition of generals Radislav Krstić and Dragoljub Ojdanić, and that their acceptance of guilt became the precedent for everyone else. Former commander of the Sarajevo-Romanija Corps of the Republika Srpska Army, General Dragomir Milošević, was sentenced on November 12, 2009, to 29 years in prison for crimes against civilians in Sarajevo during 1994 and 1995. Milošević recently submitted a request for early release to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, stating he had fulfilled all humanitarian-based conditions and was willing to comply with any additional or special conditions. In a letter to Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, General Milošević noted that he is 83 years old and has spent 22 years in prison, having voluntarily surrendered to the authorities of Serbia and Montenegro. Since 2011, Milošević has been serving his sentence in Estonia. His previous requests for early release, submitted in 2019 and 2023, were both denied.