Bruno Stojic (L) and Slobodan Praljak (R) waiting for their verdict in 2017. Photo: EPA/ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN/POOL.
Bruno Stojic, who was freed after serving two-thirds of his 20-year sentence for wartime crimes, had “reached a sufficient level of rehabilitation that warrants his conditional early release”, said the decision by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, made public on Monday.
Stojic, who was jailed for his involvement in a joint criminal enterprise to create a greater Croatian state including part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, showed remorse for his crimes during sessions with psychiatrists, the decision said.
“I am guilty, I accept my responsibility,” Stojic was quoted as saying in the decision. “When I think about the victims of the war and the atrocities (killings, rape, etc.) I want to sink into the ground. I have to live with that, that I cannot undo it.”
Judge Graciela Gatti Santana, president of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, who signed the decision that led to Stojic being released on November 7, said that his behaviour in prison in Austria was without any disciplinary incident.
The Austrian authorities, quoted in the decision, stated that he had undergone “positive changes” during his imprisonment, starting with the “rationalisation and externalisation” of his crimes to “currently clearly accept[ing] responsibility”.
Stojic and five other former officials of the so-called Herceg-Bosnia wartime statelet – Jadranko Prlic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoje Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic – were sentenced to a total of 111 years in prison in November 2017 for wartime crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
During the verdict, Praljak took poison in the courtroom and died soon afterwards.
For Stojic’s early release, he has committed to not have any contact that could harm, intimidate or in any other way influence victims or witnesses who have testified in his or other cases at the Hague court.
Stojic, who went to Zagreb after leaving custody, has also committed to supervision by the Croatian authorities and agreed to surrender his travel documents.