Berislav Pušić sometimes misspelled as Nerislav Pušić is a Croatian politician who was among 6 Croatian defendants charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...

Background

Berislav Pušić aka Berto or Berko was born on 8 June 1952 in the village of Krivodol

Krivodol

Krivodol is a town in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Vratsa Province. It is the administrative centre of Krivodol municipality, which lies in the western part of Vratsa Province, halfway between Vratsa and Montana and 130 kilometres north of Sofia...

, in Mostar

Mostar

Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...

. 1992 saw Pušić becoming an officer in the Military Police of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO)

HVO

- Organizations :*Croatian Defence Council , a military formation of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War*Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, a unit of the US Geological Survey...

 in Mostar

Mostar

Mostar is a city and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the largest and one of the most important cities in the Herzegovina region and the center of the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton of the Federation. Mostar is situated on the Neretva river and is the fifth-largest city in the country...

. In May 1993 he became part of the Croatia

Croatia

Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...

n delegation that dealt with UNPROFOR. By August 1993 he was appointed the President of the commission in charge of all HVO

HVO

- Organizations :*Croatian Defence Council , a military formation of the self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia during the Bosnian War*Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, a unit of the US Geological Survey...

 prisons and other detention facilities and the head of the department that dealt with prisoner exchanges.

Indictment

According to the indictment: Berislav Pušić was, until around April 1994, part of "a shadowy organization whose goal was to create an ethnically pure territory to be annexed and merged into a Greater Croatia

Greater Croatia

Greater Croatia is a term applied to certain currents within Croatian nationalism. In one sense, it refers to the territorial scope of the Croatian people, emphasising the ethnicity of those Croats living outside Croatia...

." As head of the prison system, he is accused of being responsible for the alleged mistreatment of Bosnian Muslim

Bosniaks

The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...

detainees.http://www.trial-ch.org/en/trial-watch/profile/db/facts/valentin_coric_496.html

Charges

Taken from the UN press release:

• nine counts of grave breaches of the Geneva conventions (wilful killing; inhuman treatment (sexual assault); unlawful deportation of a civilian; unlawful transfer of a civilian; unlawful confinement of a civilian; inhuman treatment (conditions of confinement); inhuman treatment; extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly).

• nine counts of violations of the laws or customs of war (cruel treatment (conditions of confinement); cruel treatment; unlawful labour; wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or destruction not justified by military necessity; destruction or wilful damage done to institutions dedicated to religion or education; plunder of public or private property; unlawful attack on civilians; unlawful infliction of terror on civilians; cruel treatment), and

• 'eight counts of crimes against humanity (persecutions on political, racial and religious grounds; murder; rape; deportation; inhumane acts (forcible transfer); imprisonment; inhumane acts (conditions of confinement); inhumane acts).'

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