THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Sept 17 (Hina) - The appeals chamber of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague (ICTY) on Wednesday doubled the sentence against former Bosnian Serb prison commander Milorad Krnojelac to 15 years for crimes against
humanity committed in a prison in the eastern Bosnian town of Foca in 1992.
THE HAGUE/ZAGREB, Sept 17 (Hina) - The appeals chamber of the UN war
crimes tribunal in The Hague (ICTY) on Wednesday doubled the
sentence against former Bosnian Serb prison commander Milorad
Krnojelac to 15 years for crimes against humanity committed in a
prison in the eastern Bosnian town of Foca in 1992. #L#
On March 15, 2002, the trial chamber sentenced Krnojelac to seven
and a half years in prison after finding him guilty on two counts of
crimes against humanity and two counts of violations of the laws and
customs of war, and acquitting him of six counts, mainly relating to
torture and murder.
The appeals chamber found that the trial chamber had established
the facts erroneously or incompletely and miscarried justice. The
revised judgement convicted Krnojelac of the crimes of which he had
previosly been acquitted, raising the sentence to 15 years.
The time he has spent in the tribunal's custody since June 15, 1998
is included in the sentence.
Krnojelac was commander of the KP Dom correctional facility in Foca
from April 1992 to August 1993 at the time of an ethnic cleansing
campaign by Serb forces in the Foca area and the whole of eastern
Bosnia.
Up to 760 inmates were held in the prison, mainly Bosniak men,
including mentally and phyically handicapped and seriously ill
people. Prisoners were beaten, tortured, used as forced labour and
held in inhumane conditions, and many of them were killed.
Krnojelac was also convicted of aiding and abetting in the
expulsion and deportation of most of the Bosniaks and non-Serbs
from the Foca area.
(hina) vm