Vidoje Blagojević (born 22 June 1950) is a former commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the Republika Srpska Army who was charged and tried 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 tribun ...

for his involvement in the

Srebrenica massacre The Srebrenica massacre, also known as the Srebrenica genocide, was the July 1995 genocidal killing of more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War. It was mainly perpetrated by unit ...

Career

Bosnian Serb The Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sr-Cyrl, Срби Босне и Херцеговине, Srbi Bosne i Hercegovine), often referred to as Bosnian Serbs ( sr-cyrl, босански Срби, bosanski Srbi) or Herzegovinian Serbs ( sr-cyrl, � ...

, during the course of the

Bosnian War The Bosnian War ( / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following several earlier violent incid ...

, Blagojević rose through the ranks of the

Army of Republika Srpska The Army of Republika Srpska (; ВРС/VRS), commonly referred to in English as the Bosnian Serb Army, was the military of Republika Srpska, the self-proclaimed Serb secessionist republic, a territory within the newly independent Bosnia and Herz ...

. He participated in the securing and eventual capture of the Srebrenica safe area. He was captured on 10 August 2001 and soon interred at the Hague Tribunal. Blagojević was tried along with Dragan Jokić and Dragan Obrenović. Both pleaded not guilty. In January 2005, the

International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars, war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to tr ...

found Blagojević guilty of engaging in

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

and other

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

s and sentenced him to 18 years in prison. On 9 May the ICTY's appeals court reversed the genocide conviction and reduced his sentence to 15 years."Blagojevic Acquitted of Complicity in Genocide
Balkan Investigative Reporting Network"], birn.eu.com; accessed 13 April 2015. On 25 January 2008, he was transferred to

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

to serve his prison sentence. On 22 December 2012, he was granted early release.

References

External links

ICTY Amended Joinder Indictment
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blagojevic, Vidoje 1950 births Living people People from Bratunac Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina convicted of crimes against humanity Army of Republika Srpska soldiers People convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia Bosnia and Herzegovina people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of Norway