THE HAGUE, Oct 17 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday sentenced Bosnian Serb Milan Simic to five years prison, after it declared him guilty of the abuse of Croats and Muslims in
Bosanski Samac (northern Bosnia-Herzegovina).
THE HAGUE, Oct 17 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Thursday sentenced Bosnian Serb
Milan Simic to five years prison, after it declared him guilty of
the abuse of Croats and Muslims in Bosanski Samac (northern Bosnia-
Herzegovina). #L#
In May Simic pleaded guilty to the harassment as crime against
humanity, and in return the ICTY prosecution dropped other counts
in the indictment it issued against Simic and another three local
Serbs. The three local war-lords - Blagoje Simic, Miroslav Tadic
and Simo Zaric - are accused of the ethnic cleansing of several tens
of thousands of non-Serbs from Bosanski Samac and Odzak in 1992 and
1993 and serious breaches of the Geneva conventions.
Simic, who is a paraplegic, was the head of the municipal executive
committee in Bosanski Samac at the time.
The trial of Simic and the other three defendants commenced in
September last year. Simic was granted a separate trial after he
pleaded guilty.
The defence asked for a sentence not longer than three years, but
the prosecution insisted on imprisonment of up to five years.
Simic is the seventh indictee in The Hague to have pleaded guilty.
He spent 835 days in custody, which will be included in the duration
of his sentence.
(hina) ms sb