Mico Stanisic Seeks Early Release, Would Live in Belgrade

The United Nations Mechanism for Criminal Courts is once again deciding the fate of one of the highest ranking wartime officials of Republika Srpska, a man who, if granted freedom, would resume his life in Belgrade. On September 10, Mico Stanisic’s lawyer, Slobodan M. Zecevic, filed a new request for early release with the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals on behalf of his client, the former interior minister of Republika Srpska during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The case matters for Serbia because, according to the request itself, Stanisic would live in the family home in Belgrade after his release, supported by his pension, rather than in the entity where he committed the crimes for which he was convicted.

Stanisic was sentenced by the Hague Tribunal to 22 years in prison for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He received the verdict alongside Stojan Zupljanin, the former head of the regional police center in Banja Luka, who was also sentenced to 22 years. Both men were found guilty of persecution, murder and torture, while Zupljanin was additionally convicted of extermination.

The trial of the two former police officials opened in September 2009. The first instance verdict was handed down in March 2013, and the Tribunal’s Appeals Chamber upheld it in June 2016. Stanisic voluntarily surrendered to the Tribunal in March 2005, and before the trial began, as well as several times during the proceedings, he was provisionally released in Serbia. He is currently serving his sentence in a prison in Poland, where he has spent nearly two decades since his voluntary surrender. The defense’s submission notes that more than 32 years have passed since the crimes for which he was convicted, and almost twenty years since Stanisic surrendered to the Tribunal.

In the new request, the defense argues that under Polish law, Stanisic has reached the two-thirds served threshold required for early release. As evidence of his rehabilitation, his lawyer states that Stanisic served his sentence in a multiethnic environment and maintained friendly relations with fellow prisoners of different ethnic backgrounds. The request further notes that no disciplinary proceedings were ever brought against him during his entire time in prison, that he speaks daily by phone with his wife, children and grandchildren, and that he has seen his family in person whenever their finances allowed.

“The sentence the applicant has already served not only reduces the likelihood that he will reoffend, but also contributes to reconciliation,” the defense states in the request submitted to the Mechanism.

If the Mechanism approves the request, Stanisic would, according to the submission, live in the family home in Belgrade with his family, supported by his own pension. This is not the first time he has sought release: according to Detektor, his previous request was denied in July 2025, meaning the Mechanism is now considering for a second time whether his conduct in prison justifies release earlier than the final 2016 verdict provided for.

The Stanisic and Zupljanin case remains part of the broader Hague legacy tied to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which the Mechanism continues to rule on the fate of convicts years after their verdicts became final. Unlike the first request, which was denied last summer, the new submission for the first time specifies exactly where Stanisic would live outside prison: in Belgrade, rather than in Republika Srpska, the entity whose ministry he ran during the war. The Mechanism has not yet said when it will rule on the new request.