found Radovan Karadžić, the wartime President of RS, guilty of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and sentenced him to 40 years’ imprisonment. Also in March, the ICTY found Vojislav Seselj, the Serb Radical Party leader, not guilty on any counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes. Lack of capacity and resources, along with ineffective case management and persistent political obstruction, continued to slow down the progress of prosecution and access to redress before domestic courts. In July, an independent analysis commissioned by the OSCE showed that the National War Crimes Strategy had failed to meet its targets, with a backlog of over 350 complex cases still pending before the State Court and Prosecutor’s Office. Despite earlier commitments by the authorities, no progress was made on the adoption of the Law on Protection of Victims of Torture and the harmonization of entity laws regulating the rights of civilian victims of war to enable their effective access to services, free legal aid and effective reparation. In October, a local court in Doboj city granted financial compensation to a victim of wartime rape and sentenced the perpetrator to five years’ imprisonment. This was the second case of financial reparations for war crimes awarded within a criminal proceeding. However, many victims continued to be forced to pursue compensation claims in civil proceedings, where they had to reveal their identity and incurred additional costs. In April, the Constitutional Court declared that the statute of limitations applied to reparation claims for non-material damage and that claims could be directed only against the perpetrators, not the state, further limiting the ability of victims to claim and obtain compensation. Although more than 75% of the missing persons from the war had been exhumed and identified, there were still 8,000 people missing in connection with the conflict. The process of exhumations encountered significant challenges, including reduced Amnesty International Report 2016/17 funding for the Missing Persons Institute and limited expertise domestically. The Law on Missing Persons remained unimplemented, with the Fund for the families of missing persons still awaiting establishment. BOTSWANA Republic of Botswana Head of state and government: Seretse Khama Ian Khama The rights to freedom of expression and of assembly were restricted. The rights of refugees were violated. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people continued to have their rights infringed. One prisoner under sentence of death was executed. FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION The right to freedom of expression was restricted. In March, police arrested freelance journalist Sonny Serite after a whistleblower gave him documents that related to a corruption case he was covering. Sonny Serite was charged with receiving stolen property; the charges were withdrawn in June. The Whistle Blower Act, which provided no protection to whistleblowers who contacted the media, came into effect on 16 December. In August, Lobatse High Court ruled that Outsa Mokone, editor of the Sunday Standard newspaper, could be charged with sedition. His lawyers had argued that sections of the Penal Code covering sedition infringed his right to freedom of expression and breached the Constitution. Outsa Mokone was arrested in 2014 after an article in the Sunday Standard alleged the involvement of Botswana’s President in a road accident. The article’s author, Edgar Tsimane, fled to South Africa fearing for his life and was granted asylum. FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY The right to freedom of peaceful assembly was curtailed. The Public Order Act required 89