Slavko Dokmanović was born on 14 December 1949 in Trpinja

Trpinja

Trpinja is a village and municipality in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. There are 1,537 inhabitants in village Trpinja and 5,680 inhabitants in the municipality according to the 2011 census. The majority of the population are Serbs, making up 89.29% of the population according to...

, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

, and died on 29 June 1998, in The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

. He was a Croatian Serb

Serbs of Croatia

Višeslav of Serbia, a contemporary of Charlemagne , ruled the Županias of Neretva, Tara, Piva, Lim, his ancestral lands. According to the Royal Frankish Annals , Duke of Pannonia Ljudevit Posavski fled, during the Frankish invasion, from his seat in Sisak to the Serbs in western Bosnia, who...

 who was charged with grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions

Geneva Conventions

The Geneva Conventions comprise four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish the standards of international law for the humanitarian treatment of the victims of war...

, violation of the customs of war and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

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...

 (ICTY) for his actions in the Vukovar massacre

Vukovar massacre

The Vukovar massacre, also known as Vukovar hospital massacre or simply Ovčara, was a war crime that took place between November 20 and November 21, 1991 near the city of Vukovar, a mixed Croat/Serb community in northeastern Croatia...

 while he served as the city's mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

.

Dokmanović faced two charges of each count. He was arrested in 1997 by the Polish special forces GROM

GROM

GROM is one of five special forces units of the Polish Armed Forces. It was officially activated on July 8, 1990...

 and pleaded not guilty to all charges. However, he died on 29 June 1998, having hanged himself in his cell, and his trial's proceedings soon stopped without a verdict

Verdict

In law, a verdict is the formal finding of fact made by a jury on matters or questions submitted to the jury by a judge. The term, from the Latin veredictum, literally means "to say the truth" and is derived from Middle English verdit, from Anglo-Norman: a compound of ver and dit In law, a verdict...

. He was indicted with along Mile Mrkšić

Mile Mrkšic

Mile Mrkšić is a former Serb Colonel of the Yugoslav People's Army in charge of the unit involved in the Battle of Vukovar during the Croatian War of Independence in 1991...

, Veselin Šljivančanin

Veselin Šljivancanin

Veselin Šljivančanin is a former Montenegrin officer in the Yugoslav People's Army who participated in the Battle of Vukovar and was subsequently convicted on a war crimes indictment by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his role in the Vukovar massacre...

 and Miroslav Radić who were all on trial for their role in the massacre.

External links

• ICTY Case Sheet
• ICTY Amended Indictment
• The Death of S. Dokmanovic ICTY Bulletin N°21
• Slavko Dokmanovic's Death Institute for War & Peace Reporting