Goran Jelisić

Goran Jelisić
Горан Јелисић
Goran Jelisić shooting a victim in Brčko. (Photograph provided courtesy of the ICTY)
Born	(1968-01-22) January 22, 1968 Bijeljina, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia
Nationality	Serb
Citizenship	Bosnia and Herzegovina
Criminal status	Imprisoned
Criminal charge	Genocide, 16 counts of violating the customs of war, 15 counts of crimes against humanity
Penalty	40 years in prison
Date apprehended	22 January 1998 by the Stabilization Force

Goran Jelisić (Serbian Cyrillic: Горан Јелисић; born 7 June 1968, Bijeljina, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia) is a Bosnian Serb war criminal who was found guilty of having committed crimes against humanity and for violating the customs of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at the Luka camp in Brčko during the Bosnian War.

Trial

Jelisić was apprehended by the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) of NATO on 22 January 1998. He faced trial for one count of genocide, sixteen counts of violating the customs of war and fifteen counts of crimes against humanity in relation to his involvement in the inhumane treatment and systematic killing of detainees at the Luka camp, where he was alleged to have, every day, "entered Luka’s main hangar, where most detainees were kept, selected detainees for interrogation, beat them and then often shot and killed them".

In 1999, he pleaded guilty to the charges of crimes against humanity and violating the customs of war. He was acquitted on the charge of genocide as the court did not believe the prosecution had proved this beyond reasonable doubt. He was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment. The same sentence was confirmed by the appeals chamber. On 29 May 2003, Jelisić was transferred to Italy to serve the remainder of his sentence with credit for time served since his 1998 arrest.

Personal life

On 21 December 2011, his wife, Monika Karan-Ilić (aka Monika Simeunović), was detained on suspicion of having committed war crimes against non-Serbs at the Luka camp. A native of Brcko, she had been in custody since 21 December 2011. She was found guilty of having participated in torture, inhumane treatment and infliction of suffering on Bosniak and Croat civilians in the Luka camp and Brcko police station between May and June 1992, when she was a teenager. Her sentence was reduced to two-and-a-half years of prison in 2013.