Court Cuts Sentence Of Former Bosnian-Serb Leader

The U.N. war crimes tribunal reduced the sentence of Bosnian Serb Deputy Prime Minister Radoslav Brdjanin to 30 years.

Brdjanin was sentenced to 32 years in 2004 for backing killings, torture and persecution of Bosnian Croats and Muslims in northwestern Bosnia in 1992, then part of the Serb-run autonomous region of Krajina, although he was cleared of genocide charges.

In an appeal, Brdjanin, 59, challenged hundreds of the court's findings, including that the Bosnian Serb leadership had known their "Strategic Plan" to link Serb areas by driving Bosnian Croats and Muslims from their homes could only be implemented through force and fear.

The Tribunal's Appeals Chamber dismissed the majority of Brdjanin's challenges but reversed his convictions for aiding and abetting torture in detention camps and for destruction in the municipality of Bosanska Krupa.

"Since the Appeals Chamber has reversed certain convictions, it has reduced the sentence given to Brdjanin," said judge Theodor Meron.

"However, in light of the relative gravity of the crimes for which Brdjanin's convictions have been overturned and that of the crimes for which Brdjanin's convictions have been upheld ... this reduction has been quite limited," he added.

Brdjanin was a prominent member of the hardline Serbian Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDS), founded by Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, and who is wanted by the tribunal on genocide charges.

The Appeals Chamber affirmed the court's findings that the crimes which occurred in the Bosnian Krajina were a direct result of Serb leaders' plan to "cleanse" the area of non-Serbs, and that leaders including Brdjanin had control of the Bosnian-Serb military and police.

It also upheld previous findings that Brdjanin had contributed to the Strategic Plan and knew that crimes were being committed in furtherance of the scheme.

Serb atrocities in Bosnia horrified the outside world, provoking U.N. sanctions against Serbia and eventually U.S. air raids against the Bosnian Serbs, followed soon after by the Dayton peace accords in 1995.

Bosnian Croats and Muslims were held, killed or tortured in Serb-run detention camps during the war. Television images of emaciated inmates prompted comparisons with Holocaust victims.

Detainees were continuously subjected to or forced to witness inhumane acts including murder, rape, sexual assault, torture and beating.