The entire trial was unprecedented as it was the first time individuals were tried exclusively for sexual offences, as war crimes which were treated as crimes against humanity.
Two of the “men”, Kunarac and Kovac, sexually abused their victims almost nightly and used their victims as chattel to be passed around to their friends, from April 1992 until February 1993.
The third, Vukovic, was not a direct participant in this pimping procedure and was sentenced to 12 years for raping a 15-year-old girl prisoner. Part of the grounds of his appeal was his attorneys claim that the sexual intercourse was not forced, but considering the circumstances of the so-called “relationship” such claims were discarded. A prisoner can hardly be called free to chose or be said to be able to refuse the aggression of her captor.
(Milorad Krnojelac, who had acted as “Prison Warden” of Foca, had earlier, in a separate ICTY case, been sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for illegal detention, inhumane conditions in the prison and two cases of beatings by his subordinate guards. He was never implicated in the rape trial. The judges ruled that the illegal detention and inhumane conditions in Foca represented the crime of persecution on religious or political grounds.)
Two of the “men”, Kunarac and Kovac, sexually abused their victims almost nightly and used their victims as chattel to be passed around to their friends, from April 1992 until February 1993.
The third, Vukovic, was not a direct participant in this pimping procedure and was sentenced to 12 years for raping a 15-year-old girl prisoner. Part of the grounds of his appeal was his attorneys claim that the sexual intercourse was not forced, but considering the circumstances of the so-called “relationship” such claims were discarded. A prisoner can hardly be called free to chose or be said to be able to refuse the aggression of her captor.
(Milorad Krnojelac, who had acted as “Prison Warden” of Foca, had earlier, in a separate ICTY case, been sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment for illegal detention, inhumane conditions in the prison and two cases of beatings by his subordinate guards. He was never implicated in the rape trial. The judges ruled that the illegal detention and inhumane conditions in Foca represented the crime of persecution on religious or political grounds.)