Momir Nikolić

Momir Nikolić (born 20 February 1955)^[1] is an ethnic Bosnian Serb who served as Assistant Chief of Security and Intelligence for the Bratunac Brigade, Drina Corps, Bosnian Serb Army, VRS, at a time when the unit was engaged in legal and illegal operations in and around Srebrenica, which resulted in the Srebrenica Genocide. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to crimes against humanity, for which he is serving a 20-year sentence.

Background

Born on 20 February 1955, Nikolić is a native of Hrancin, Bratunac, Bosnia and Hercegovina. He served as Assistant Chief of Security and Intelligence for the Bratunac Brigade, Drina Corps, Bosnian Serb Army, VRS. On 26 March 2002 he was indicted, charged with genocide or alternately complicity in genocide and persecutions, and Violations of the Laws or Customs of War. He was arrested by SFOR on 1 April 2002 and transferred to International Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) custody the following day. Nikolić made his initial appearance on 3 April 2002, pleading not guilty on all counts. A plea agreement was reached on 7 May 2003 and Nikolić pleaded guilty to Count 5 of the indictment - Crimes against humanity.

A written Factual Basis for the crime and for Nikolić’s participation in it was filed with the plea agreement. The Factual Basis and the indictment, which Nikolić acknowledged to be true, set out the following acts:

• the murder of over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men ages 16–60, including some women, children, and elderly men;
• the cruel and inhumane treatment of Bosnian Muslim civilians, including beatings in and around Potocari and in detention facilities in Bratunac;
• the terrorising of Bosnian Muslim civilians in Srebrenica and Potocari on 12–13 July 1995;
• the destruction of personal property and effects belonging to the Bosnian Muslims; and
• the forcible transfer of the entire Bosnian Muslim population from the Srebrenica enclave.^[2]

He was sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment on 2 December 2003. The sentence was reduced from 27 years imprisonment to 20 years by the ICTY Appeals Chamber on 8 March 2006.^[3] Nikolić was transferred to Finland to serve his sentence on 11 April 2007.^[4]

Controversy

During the course of the trial, Nikolić, who served under Vidoje Blagojevic's command as the head of the security element of the Bratunac Brigade, gave testimony in accordance with a plea agreement he made with the prosecution. At the time of the plea agreement, a controversy came out over false statements that Nikolić had made to the prosecution, which did not appear in the Statement of Facts which accompanied the plea agreement. It is important to note that the prosecution had been made aware of the falsities in advance to remove them from the document and they did not affect any judgments, but the incident was used by the defence to discredit Nikolic's testimony implicating other accused persons, and is still used in various revisionist conspiracy theories with respect to the Srebrenica massacre.^[5]

References