Valentin Ćorić | |
|---|---|
 Ćorić in 2017 | |
| Born | (1956-06-23)23 June 1956 |
| Allegiance |  Croatia |
| Branch | Croatian Defence Council Herceg-Bosna |
| Years of service | 1992–1995 |
| Rank | Commander |
| Battles / wars | |
Valentin Ćorić (born 23 June 1956) is a Bosnian Croat former official in theCroatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. He was convicted of war crimes andcrimes against humanity by theInternational Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and sentenced to 16 years in prison.[1][2]
Ćorić was born on 23 June 1956 inPaoča, nearČitluk, inPR Bosnia and Herzegovina,FPR Yugoslavia. He graduated with an engineering degree which he put to use working in the Čitluk,bauxite mines. He moved from mining to military when he became the Commander of the training barracks inKrvavice,Croatia. In 1992 he was appointed Deputy for Security and Commander of the Military Police of theCroatian Defence Council (HVO). In late 1993, he switched Ministries to become theMinister of the Interior in theCroatian Republic of Herceg-Bosna.[1][2]
According to the indictment, Ćorić was, until around April 1994, "a member of a shadowy organization whose goal was to create an ethnically pure territory to be annexed and merged into aGreater Croatia". The court accused Ćorić of "inciting political, ethnic and religious hatred while also using force, intimidation and terror, (mostly by mass arrests during which people were killed) to ethnically drive non-Croatians from HVO controlled territory."[1][2]
Taken from theUN press release:
In November 2017, the ICTY convicted him along with five other Herceg-Bosnia officials (Jadranko Prlić,Bruno Stojić,Slobodan Praljak,Milivoj Petković and Berislav Pušić) of participating in ajoint criminal enterprise aimed at ethnically cleansing Bosniaks from Bosnia. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. He was granted early release in 2019 after serving two-thirds of his sentence for the time he was in custody.[3]