Judge Michael Simmons said the sentence was passed on the basis of a plea bargain Prce made with John McNair, chief prosecutor of the Bosnian Prosecutor's Office Department for Organised and White-Collar Crime and Corruption, which presided over the case of mismanagement of Hercegovacka Banka funds.
Prce had pleaded guilty to charges of unconscientious performance of official duties and abuse of office and power.
Said crimes are punishable under the Croat-Muslim entity's Criminal Code. Prce was an official when they were committed.
The plea bargain was possible under the Bosnian Law on Criminal Procedure, a combination of Anglo-Saxon and continental law which introduced plea bargaining in the Bosnian judiciary this year.
Prce was punished with 1.6 years' imprisonment for the first count of the indictment, which he pleaded guilty to, and four years for the second. This was then combined into a single five-year term. Bosnian Federation law envisages a maximum jail term of 15 years for said crimes.
The punishment includes the time Prce spent in custody since his arrest, Judge Simmons said, adding the sentence was final because both the defence and the prosecution waived the right to appeal.
Prce was arrested in the southern city of Mostar on January 23, together with Ante Jelavic and Miroslav Rupcic. All three are detained at Kula near Sarajevo, where Prce will finish serving his time.
In a summary of the decision, Judge Simmons said Prce's sentence was somewhat shorter than the panel of judges initially intended given the damage caused by and the nature of the crime. He added the final decision took into account the will Prce demonstrated to help the prosecution by producing evidence against the others on the indictment.
Prce objected to Simmons' statement, urging counsel Zarko Bulic to claim that Prce did not commit to helping the prosecution in a separate trial against Jelavic, Rupcic, Ivica Karlovic and Friar Ivan Sevo, the other indictees in the Hercegovacka Banka case. Prce himself said he never accused the other defendants and asked that this be entered in the verdict.
Prosecutor McNair said that although the plea bargain bound Prce to testify as a witness for the prosecution, from Prce's perspective one could not say that he offered to testify against the others.
Defence counsel Bulic told the press Prce turned down the prosecution's request to testify, but added Prce could not avoid taking the witness stand if the court requested him to. "That obligation stands for every Bosnian citizen".
The trial of the other four Bosnian Croats resumes on October 14, when the prosecution will present evidence. The first witness is expected on October 18, McNair said but refused to reveal the identity, saying only it was a person currently in Finland.
Jelavic told the court today that his elementary human rights and freedoms were endangered, saying he was not allowed to choose a lawyer from abroad even though he could be prosecuted by foreign prosecutors and judges.
Judge Simmons dismissed this complaint, saying that under Bosnian law only Bosnian citizens could represent defendants before national courts.
Josip Muselimovic, Jelavic's previous defence counsel who today presented himself and coordinator of Jelavic's defence, once again requested that Jelavic be provisionally released. He said the defence was willing to pay EUR125,000 bail, mortgage Jelavic's entire property, and give the court his passport.
Judge Simmons said a decision on this proposal would be made after the court received it in writing.