The ICTY Prosecutor's Office on Friday withdraw its appeal against the ruling due to "extremely humanitarian circumstances, and notably due to the defendant's old age, poor health and condition. The defence also withdraw the appeal as soon as as the verdict became final.
On 31 January 2005, the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal sentenced Strugar to eight years in prison after it found him guilty of December 1991 artillery attacks on Dubrovnik, which is added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The accused was found liable according to his command responsibility for the unlawful attack on Dubrovnik on 6 December 1991 and was found guilty, on the basis of two counts in the indictment, of the violations of the law and customs of war over attacks against civilians and the destruction of religious and cultural buildings and historic monuments.
He was acquitted of another four counts in his indictment which alleged that he was accountable according to his command responsibility for murders, inhumane treatment, unlawful attacks on civilian targets and devastation not justified by military necessity. A trial chamber also acquitted him of his personal responsibility for the six counts in his indictment.
The chamber established that it was not Strugar but his inferior, Admiral Miodrag Jokic, who ordered the attack on Dubrovnik's Old Town on 6 December 1991.
The chamber emphasised that Strugar "is not to be sentenced for ordering the attack on the Old Town." His criminal liability arises because he "failed to take adequate measures to stop the shelling of the Old Town and because he failed to ensure that those responsible for the attack were disciplined."
Last month Strugar's defence attorney requested that their client se4rve the rest of his sentence in Montenegro.