Principal perpetrators

Notion(s) Filing Case
Appeal Judgement - 29.09.2014 KAREMERA & NGIRUMPATSE
(ICTR-98-44-A)

150.     […] [T]he Appeals Chamber recalls that there is no requirement to specifically identify each of the persons involved in a joint criminal enterprise.[1]

[…]

605.   […] the Trial Chamber’s duty to identify the plurality of persons applies to the persons belonging to the joint criminal enterprise,[2] not necessarily to the principal perpetrators of the crime. In that regard, the Trial Chamber expressly found that the Interahamwe, soldiers, and others who carried out the vast majority of the rapes and sexual assaults were not members of the joint criminal enterprise to pursue the destruction of the Tutsi population in Rwanda.[3] The Appeals Chamber recalls that the decisive issue with regard to the principal perpetrators of the crimes is whether they were used by the accused or by any other member of the joint criminal enterprise in order to carry out the actus reus of the crimes forming part of the common purpose.[4]

[1] Gotovina and Markač Appeal Judgement, para. 89.

[2] See supra, para. 145.

[3] [Karemera and Ngirumpatse] Trial Judgement, para. 1487.

[4] Kvočka et al. Appeal Judgement, para. 168.

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Notion(s) Filing Case
Appeal Judgement - 08.06.2021 MLADIĆ Ratko
(MICT-13-56-A)

193. […] [T]he Appeals Chamber further recalls that members of a joint criminal enterprise may be held responsible for crimes carried out by principal perpetrators, provided that the crimes can be imputed to at least one member of the joint criminal enterprise and that the latter – when using the principal perpetrators – acted in accordance with the common objective.[1]

[1] See Stanišić and Župljanin Appeal Judgement, para. 119; Šainović et al. Appeal Judgement, para. 1256; Krajišnik Appeal Judgement, para. 225; Martić Appeal Judgement, para. 168; Brđanin Appeal Judgement, para. 413.

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