War Crimes Investigator

A retired career law enforcement official, Dr.  John Cencich was the senior American war crimes investigator at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague. He is the co-architect of the prosecution theory of the Joint Criminal Enterprise, led the overall investigation (including authoring the investigation plan and the first draft of the indictment for Croatia), and directed the presentation of the entire case before an indictment review panel of international prosecutors and military lawyers. These efforts resulted in an indictment of the first sitting head-of-state in history and the public naming of 15 major co-perpetrators involving high-level organized crime, political, military, police, paramilitary, and intelligence figures. 

 Now a tenured full professor and criminologist, he is the recipient of the United Nations Medal from the International Criminal Tribunal for his work on war crimes investigations and prosecutions, a formal Resolution from the Senate of Virginia commending him on his distinguished service to the law enforcement profession, the Commonwealth, the nation, and the United Nations, and he was recognized meritoriously  by the U.S. government for his singular and marked achievements leading one of the largest international criminal investigations in history, which contributed to international peace and justice on behalf of the

 United States and its allies.

In addition to a master's degree in Criminal Justice from Virginia Commonwealth University and advanced law degrees from the University of Kent at Canterbury and the University of Pittsburgh, he holds the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science in International Human Rights Law from the University of Notre Dame.