HAGUE TRIBUNAL APPEALS CHAMBER INCREASES ALEKSOVSKI'S SENTENCE

ZAGREB, March 24 (Hina) - The Hague-based International Criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Appeals Chamber increased Bosnian Croat Zlatko Aleksovski's sentence to seven years after the Tribunal sentenced him to two years and six months in prison last May, the ICTY reported Friday. The Appeals Chamber partially adopted the prosecution's appeal which requested an at least 10 year prison term due to the gravity of crimes Aleksovski had committed as prison warden on Kaonik (Bosnia- Herzegovina) in which Moslems had been detained and abused in 1993. The Chamber said the sentence of first instance did not sufficiently reflect Aleksovski's position in the structure of authority, nor the gravity of his actions. "His offences were not trivial. Instead of preventing it, (Aleksovski) as a superior involved himself in violence against those whom he should have been protecting, and allowed them to be subjected to psychological terror. He also failed to punish those responsible," the Chamber said. Citing the sentence in the Tadic case of July 15, 1999, the Appeals Chamber accepted the claim of the prosecution that it was "international" and that "the victims were protected persons under Article 4 of Geneva Conventions IV". Three years and 12 days have been deducted from Aleksovski's prison term for the time already spent by Aleksovski in custody. Aleksovski, a sociologist, was born in Pakrac (Croatia) in 1960. (hina) lml jn