ICTY ACQUITS THREE BOSNIAN CROATS

THE HAGUE, Oct 23 (Hina) - The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) appeal chamber on Tuesday acquitted three Bosnian Croats - Zoran, Mirjan and Vlatko Kupreskic, who were found guilty in January 2001 for the massacre in Ahmici, assessing the evidence on which the verdict was based was unreliable. The panel of judges also reduced the sentences for the other two persons convicted for the same crime - Vladimir Santic and Drago Josipovic. The ICTY Trial Chamber made a mistake in assessing the reliability of the only testimony on which the first verdict against Zoran and Mirjan Kupreskic was based, the chairwoman of the appeals chamber, Patricia Wald, said. The judges lessened the sentence to Drago Josipovic from 15 to 12 years in prison and Vladimir Santic's sentence from 25 to 18 years in prison for taking part in one of the worst war crimes in Bosnia- Herzegovina. The ICTY sentenced Vlatko Kupreskic to six, Zoran Kupreskic to ten and Mirjan Kupreskic to eight years in prison. This is the first final verdict against Bosnian Croats for one of the harshest crimes committed during the Croat-Muslim war in Bosnia. During the appeal process, the defence attorneys of the five Bosnian Croats introduced new evidence from the archive the Croatian authorities opened after the January 2000 elections. The five Bosnian Croats have been held in ICTY detention since late 1997, and those four years are going to be included in Santic and Josipovic's sentences. After being found guilty, Santic became a repentant and decided to testify against Dario Kordic and Tihomir Blaskic. During his testimony Santic gave direct evidence that the Croatian Council of Defence had planned the attack on the village of Ahimici, launched in the early hours of April 16, 1993. (hina) it sb