The Hague, Netherlands – A U.N. tribunal sentenced the former speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament Wednesday to 27 years in prison for war crimes but acquitted him of the harsher charge of genocide.
Momcilio Krajisnik, 61, one of the highest-ranking politicians in wartime Bosnia, was convicted of five counts of war crimes, including persecution, extermination and the murder of Muslims and Croats in the early stages of the 1992-95 Bosnian war, which left more than 200,000 dead.
In its verdict, the court said Krajisnik “knew about, and intended, the mass detention and expulsion of civilians. He had the power to intervene, but he was not concerned with the predicament of detained and expelled persons.”
Presiding judge Alphons Orie said, however, the judges were unconvinced by the evidence that the Bosnian Serb leadership had deliberately intended to destroy the non-Serb population – a key element in winning a conviction for genocide, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Krajisnik’s case was one of the most important remaining for the tribunal, which is due to begin its last trial in 2008, and may be the last chance to apportion blame among the breakaway Bosnian Serb leadership for wartime atrocities.
