According to the ruling read out by the trial chamber's president Vinka Beraha-Nikicevic, Milorad Lazic, 45, and Nikola Konjevic, 56, were sentenced to three years in jail each. Mirko Marunic. 42, was given a prison term of two years and Perica Djakovic, 42, was acquitted of charges of inhumane treatment of MIrko Medunic, a member of the Croatian Interior Ministry, after they captured him in Medak, southern Croatia in 1991.
Justice Beraha-Nikicevic said today that the convicted defendants had committed war crimes against the prisoner of war after he surrendered his weapons to them.
Under the indictment, between 3 and 8 September 1991, the defendants together with several unknown members of the Serb rebel reservists had been constantly beating Medunic, and were also stabbing him. The victim suffered multiple severe injuries.
Justice Beraha-Nikicevic said the prison terms were lower than stipulated for those crimes as the court considered mitigating circumstances such as that the defendants had no criminal records so far and that they had families for which they had to care.
Aggravating circumstances were the gravity and cruelty of the crime.
Deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said the prosecution would certainly appeal against Djakovic's acquittal and most probably against rulings for the other defendants.
The Office of the Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor on 6 October 2009 issued the indictment in the Medak case. Soon after that the trial began in Belgrade.
The Gospic County Court in Croatia in 1996 sentenced those Serb paramilitaries to prison in their absence.
Lazic, Djakovic and Konjevic were sentenced to eight years in prison each, and Marunic was sentenced to six years. The Gospic court also ordered the six-year imprisonment for Nikola Vujnovic. Vujnovic, 40, was cleared of charges at the start of the proceedings in Belgrade.
The Croatian prosecution referred the case to the Serbian prosecution in line with the 2006 agreement between Croatia and Serbia on the prosecution of war crimes.