## Facts

- The case concerned a 16 April 1993 attack on the Bosnian Muslim village of Ahmići (Ahmići-Šantići area) in the Lašva Valley during the Croat–Muslim conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
- In a few hours, approximately 116 Muslim civilians were killed and about 24 wounded; about 169 houses and two mosques were destroyed.
- The Trial Chamber found the operation was not a combat engagement but a planned and organized assault directed at civilians.
- The Chamber found the attack’s primary purpose was to expel Muslims from the village through killings, burning homes, destroying property, detaining survivors, and deporting them, with the goal of spreading terror to prevent return.
- The accused were Zoran Kupreškić, Mirjan Kupreškić, Vlatko Kupreškić, Drago Josipović, Dragan Papić, and Vladimir Šantić (“Vlado”), alleged to have participated in, or aided and abetted, the attack and its implementation.
- The indictment (as amended) charged crimes against humanity (including persecution, murder, and inhumane acts) and violations of the laws or customs of war (including murder and cruel treatment), with prosecution allegations of coordinated killing, property destruction, organized detention, and expulsion on discriminatory grounds.
- Trial before ICTY Trial Chamber II took place in 1998; judgment was delivered on 14 January 2000.

## Issues

1. Whether the Ahmići operation constituted crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war, including persecution, murder, and inhumane acts.
2. Whether the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that each accused incurred individual criminal responsibility as a direct participant or aider and abettor.
3. What elements must be shown for persecution as a crime against humanity, including discriminatory intent and the requirement of a nexus to a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population.
4. Whether a campaign commonly described as “ethnic cleansing” can be legally characterized as persecution based on a combination of underlying acts (killings, destruction, detention, and expulsion).

## Decision

- The Trial Chamber held that the Ahmići events formed part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against Bosnian Muslim civilians.
- The Chamber found the underlying conduct included discriminatory persecution and related crimes against humanity, and also amounted to violations of the laws or customs of war.
- The Chamber convicted some accused on certain counts (including convictions of Zoran and Mirjan Kupreškić for persecution and related crimes).
- The Chamber acquitted some accused, or acquitted on certain counts, where the evidence did not establish presence, identification, or participation beyond reasonable doubt.
- The Chamber treated the coordinated killings, destruction of homes and mosques, illegal detention, and forced displacement as mutually reinforcing aspects of a planned campaign to remove a protected civilian population from the area.

## Legal Principles

- Crimes against humanity require a nexus to a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population; an organized village-level operation may satisfy this requirement when linked to a broader campaign.
- Persecution as a crime against humanity is grounded in discrimination on political, racial, or religious grounds and requires discriminatory intent.
- Persecution may be committed through a range of underlying acts, including (where sufficiently grave and discriminatory) killings, severe destruction of civilian property, and forced displacement; it is not limited to physical violence.
- “Ethnic cleansing” may be legally framed as persecution when the evidence shows coordinated acts aimed at permanently removing a targeted group through terror, destruction, detention, and deportation.
- Individual criminal responsibility must be proven beyond reasonable doubt; liability may attach to principals and to those who aid and abet, but acquittal is required where identification or participation remains unproven.

## Conclusion

The ICTY Trial Chamber concluded that the Ahmići attack was a planned, organized assault on Bosnian Muslim civilians designed to expel them from the village, and it used the case to clarify persecution’s discriminatory character, its connection to a widespread or systematic attack, and how combined acts associated with ethnic cleansing can constitute persecution and related international crimes.


Prosecutor v. Kupreškić, Case No. IT-95-16-T (Int'l Crim. Trib. for the Former Yugoslavia Jan. 14, 2000)