The Prosecutor v.

Zejnil Delalic and Zdravko Mucic, Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo

Facts:

On 19 March 1996, an indictment was issued against the four accused ZD, ZM, HD and EL. The
indictment related to the events that took place in 1992 in a prison camp near the town of Celebici in central
Bosnia and Herzegovina. The accused were charged with grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949,
under Article 2 of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY) Statute, and violations of the laws or
customs of war, under Art 3 of the ICTY Statute, in connection with acts allegedly perpetrated within the
Celebici camp.

The Celebici camp consisted of barracks and warehouses covering an area of about 50,000 square
meters with a railway line running through the middle. The Celebici barracks and warehouses were first used
for the detention of prisoners in the latter part of April 1992 and the majority of the prisoners who were detained
between April and December 1992 were men, captured during and after the military operations at Bradina and
Donje Selo and the surrounding areas.

ZD is alleged to have exercised authority over the Celebici prison-camp in his role first as coordinator of
the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat forces in the area, and later as Commander of the First Tactical Group
of the Bosnian Army. EL was alleged to have worked as a guard at the Celebici camp. HD and ZM were
alleged to have worked within the camp and to have acted in the capacity of commanders, with ZM being
commander, and HD a deputy commander from May to November 1992, when he replaced ZM as commander.

EL and HD were primarily charged with individual criminal responsibility pursuant to Art 7(1) of the ICTY
Statute, as direct participants in certain of the crimes alleged, including acts of murder, torture and inhuman
treatment. ZM and ZD were primarily charged as superiors with responsibility for the operation of the Celebici
camp, pursuant to Art 7(3) of the Statute, for crimes committed by their subordinates, including those alleged to
have been committed by EL and HD. Several counts in the indictment also charged HD in his capacity as a
superior with command responsibility.

Decision and Reasoning

The Trial Chamber held:

ZD was not guilty on all counts on the basis that he did not have sufficient command and control over
the Celebici camp and its guards to find him criminally responsible as a superior for the crime which they
committed in the camp;

ZM was guilty under the principles of superior responsibility for the crimes committed by his
subordinates, including murder, torture and inhuman treatment as he was the de facto commander of the
Celebici camp and exercised de facto authority over the prison-camp, the deputy commander and the guards;
ZM was in a de facto position of superior authority over the Celebici prison, and knew or had reason to know of
the violations of international humanitarian law committed in the Celebici camp, but failed to prevent these acts
or punish the perpetrators thereof and, as such, was found responsible for the willful killing and murder of five
prisoners;

HD and EL was found guilty on the basis of personal responsibility for crimes including murder, torture
and inhuman treatment;

ZD and HD had respectively been found not to have exercised superior authority over the Celebici
prison-camp and, as such, were not guilty of torture or cruel treatment. ZD and HD were not guilty of inhuman
and cruel treatment, due to the finding that they did not have positions of superior authority;

ZM, HD, EL were sentenced to seven, twenty and fifteen years imprisonment, respectively, and ZD was
acquitted.