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| |  | | Pavle Strugar | | | context : | Former Yugoslavia  | | judgement place : | ICTY (Yugoslavia) | | status : | Sentenced | | particulars : | Sentenced to 8 years in prison; sentence reduced on appeal to seven and a half years on 17 July 2008 | | position : | Commander of the JNA during the military campaign against Dubrovnik |
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| | | | In the Strugar case, the Court stressed out the fact that the prohibition of attacking civilians was part of customary law:
- “The offence of attacking civilian objects is a breach of a rule of international humanitarian law. As already ruled by the Chamber in the present case and upheld by the Appeals Chamber, Article 52 [of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions], referred to in respect of the count of attacking civilian objects, is a reaffirmation and reformulation of a rule that had previously attained the status of customary international law.” (Strugar, Trial Chamber, January 31, 2005, para. 223)
The Trial Chamber also specified the elements needed to assess military necessity:
- “The second requirement is that the act is ‘not justified by military necessity.’ The Chamber is of the view that military necessity may be usefully defined for present purposes with reference to the widely acknowledged definition of military objectives in Article 52 of Additional Protocol I as ‘those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.’ Whether a military advantage can be achieved must be decided, as the Trial Chamber in the Galic case held, from the perspective of the ‘person contemplating the attack, including the information available to the latter, that the object is being used to make an effective contribution to military action.’ In other words, each case must be determined on its facts. Recalling its earlier finding that there were no military objectives in the Old Town on 6 December 1991, the Chamber is of the view that the question of proportionality in determining military necessity does not arise on the facts of this case.” (Strugar, Trial Chamber, January 31, 2005, para. 295) | |    | |  |  | | nationality : | | | Serbia and montenegro | | | date of birth : | | | 13.07.1933 | | | last time seen : | | | The Hague (Netherlands) | | | period of charges : | | | 01.10.1991 - 31.12.1991 | | | judgement period : | | | 25.02.2001 - 17.07.2008 | | | charges : | | | War crimes | | | profile last modified : | | | 11.10.2008 |
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