The sentence, which was read out by Judge Carmel Agius, includes the five years Brdjanin has spent in the tribunal's detention unit.
The 56-year-old Brdjanin was found guilty on individual responsibility of eight of the 12 counts in the indictment, including persecution on religious, political and racial grounds as crimes against humanity. He was acquitted of genocide, complicity in genocide, extermination, and unlawful destruction and appropriation of property.
The judgment established that as president of the Autonomous Region of Krajina (ARK) Crisis Staff, Brdjanin had a leading role in the coordination of a campaign of ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Croats in said area.
Brdjanin was acquitted of genocide charges because the Trial Chamber did not find "that the offences were committed with the specific intent to destroy the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat groups of the ARK".
Establishing that Muslim and Croat non-combatants killed by Bosnian Serbs were brought to detention camps and exposed to conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction, which is consistent with the definition of genocide, the Trial Chamber ruled that it was not proved that genocide was committed in ARK because the number of forcibly displaced members of said communities was extremely high when compared to the number of those exposed to physical destruction.
"The Trial Chamber has not found beyond reasonable doubt that genocide was committed in the relevant ARK municipalities, from April to December 1992," read the judgement.
Only four of 29 individual massacres mentioned in the indictment were not proved, said Judge Agius, adding that a total of 1,669 Muslims and Croats were killed in the incidents that were proved. He cited three such massacres as examples, in Kljuc, Sanski Most and Skender Vakuf municipalities, in which 300 civilians were killed.
Brdjanin was found guilty of aiding and abetting but was acquitted of participation in a joint criminal enterprise.
The judgement established that the decisions of Brdjanin's ARK Crisis Staff on the disarmament of non-Serbs and their relocation from ARK territory contributed to Serb troops' attacks on towns and villages in which they lived, to crimes that were committed in the process, to the transfer to camps, deportation and forcible transfer of dozens of thousands of people.
The judgement also established that in his public statements Brdjanin incited to retaliation against and the killing of Muslims and Croats.
Aggravating circumstances included Brdjanin's leadership position, the status and vulnerability of the victims, his wilful participation and long-standing criminal behaviour, and higher education.
Among the mitigating circumstances were Brdjanin's assistance to Muslims from his birth place of Celinac, his remorse in individualised instances, the family status, and "his respectful conduct... with witnesses testifying against him".
Brdjanin was arrested by the NATO-led Stabilisation Force in 1999 in his capacity as a member of the Bosnian Serb entity parliament.
He was indicted alongside General Momir Talic. Their trial began on 23 January 2002. Following Talic's death in September 2002, the trial against Brdjanin continued until 22 April 2004, when the main hearing was completed.