Bosnian Croat Ex-President Gets 25 Years for War Crimes
Former Bosnian Croat President Jadranko Prlic and five co-accused were on Wednesday jailed for between 25 and 10 years for murdering and deporting Muslims in Bosnia in the early 1990s to create a "greater Croatian state."
The six, all top former Bosnian Croat officials, faced 26 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their roles in the brutal conflict which formed part of the greater war that broke out after Yugoslavia crumbled in 1991 and in which 100,000 people were killed.
Prlic and three others were found guilty of 22 counts. Two accused were acquitted of some of the charges.
"The trial chamber is satisfied that Jadranko Prlic made a significant contribution to a joint criminal enterprise and to a criminal purpose to drive out the Muslim population," French judge Jean-Claude Antonetti told the Yugoslav war crimes court in The Hague.
"The trial chamber therefore sentences you to 25 years in prison," Antonetti said while Prlic, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and light-blue striped tie stood and listened without showing any emotion.
The former president and later also prime minister of the self-proclaimed Bosnian Croat state of Herceg-Bosna has been on trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with his former Defense Minister Bruno Stojic, 58, and four senior military officials: Slobodan Praljak, 68, Milivoj Petkovic, 63, Valentin Coric, 56, and Berislav Pusic, 60 since April 2006.
At the end of one of the largest trials ever conducted by the ICTY, the other five were handed sentences ranging between 10 and 20 years.
Source: Agence France Presse
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