Željko Lelek (born 9 February 1962,

Goražde Goražde ( cyrl, Горажде, ) is a city and the administrative center of Bosnian-Podrinje Canton Goražde of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated on the banks of Drina river. As of 2 ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

), a Bosnian Serb war criminal who was the first individual indicted for the

mass rape Mass sexual assault is the collective sexual assault of individuals in public by a group. Typically acting under the protective cover of large gatherings, victims have reported being groped, stripped, beaten, bitten, penetrated and raped. Egy ...

crimes that were a feature of the expulsion of the

Bosniak The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry, cu ...

(Bosnian Muslim) population of the town of

Višegrad Višegrad ( sr-cyrl, Вишеград, ) is a town and municipality located in eastern Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It rests at the confluence of the Drina and the Rzav river. As of 2013, it has a population of 10,668 ...

, as part of the strategic campaign of

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...

carried out in the Drina Valley in the early days of the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...

Biography

Lelek took part in the widespread and systematic attacks on Bosniak civilians that were carried out in Višegrad between April and June 1992 by Bosnian Serb forces assisted by

paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...

groups from neighbouring Serbia. Some 4000 Muslims from Višegrad were

disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiza ...

. Lelek, a policeman, was a member of the group led by the war criminals

Milan Lukić Milan Lukić ( sr-cyr, Милан Лукић; born 6 September 1967) is a Bosnian Serb war criminal who led the White Eagles paramilitary group during the Bosnian War. He was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Y ...

and

Mitar Vasiljević Mitar Vasiljević ( sr-cyr, Митар Васиљевић; born 25 August 1954) is a Bosnian Serb who was convicted of crimes against humanity and violation of the laws or customs of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugosl ...

, both found guilty by the

ICTY The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribunal ...

at The Hague of some of the most horrific crimes committed during the Bosnian War. Lelek was found guilty of taking part in persecution of the Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) population, grave freedom deprivations, grave sexual assaults and forcible transfer of the population, in a campaign during which Bosnian Muslim men were abducted from their homes and places of work, detained and killed while women were taken to a camp where they were tortured and raped. In April 1992 Lelek and Lukić repeatedly raped a Muslim woman in the Vilina Vlas hotel, on the outskirts of Visegrad. In June 1992, Lelek forced a Muslim woman detained at Vilina Vlas to "provide him with sexual services". In May and June 1992 Lelek and other Bosnian Serb soldiers and policemen abducted Muslim men from their homes near Višegrad and imprisoned them. They robbed and demolished the men's homes. In the course of one robbery and abduction Lelek forced a Muslim woman and her 80-year-old bed-ridden mother-in-law to take off their clothes to prove they had no money with them. Azra Osmanagić, a prosecution witness, one of a group of Višegrad women forcibly transferred to Bosnian government-held territory and whose husband was abducted and killed, observed that Lelek "was raised with us, went to school with us, lived by us and did such terrible things". Osmanagić and others were angered by the Court's verdict after the Trial Panel dismissed the charges against Lelek of the two decapitations and three killings in May 1992 and also the charge of killing the two women and baby at Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge and the Appeal Panel confirmed Lelek's acquittal. The Appeal Panel found that an amended indictment that left out the relevant criminal acts referred to in the previous indictment signified that the Prosecution had dropped these charges and that this had been explicitly and verbally confirmed before the court. On 23 May 2008, Lelek was found guilty and sentenced to 13 years in prison. On 12 January 2009, the Appellate Panel modified the First-instance Verdict and found Lelek guilty of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

and sentenced him to 16 years of imprisonment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lelek, Zeljko Living people Army of Republika Srpska soldiers Bosnian genocide perpetrators 1962 births Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted of war crimes