NETHERLANDS: Bosnian Serb politician Krajisnik acquitted of genocide but sentenced to 27 years for crimes against humanity

The UN tribunal in The Hague acquitted Bosnian Serb politician Momcilo Krajisnik of genocide charges in the 1992-95 Bosnian war on Wednesday (September 27) but sentenced him to 27 years in prison for crimes against humanity. Judge Alphons Orie pronounced him guilty of murder, extermination, deportation, persecution and forced transfer of non-Serb civilians, but said Krajisnik did not have the specific intent necessary to be found guilty of genocide. "You are found not guilty and therefore acquitted of Counts 1 and 2 of the indictment, namely genocide and complicity in genocide with the attempt to destroy, in part, the Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats. You are also found not guilty of Count 6 of the indictment, namely murder as a violation of the laws or customs of war. The chamber finds you guilty on the following counts: Count 3, persecution is a crime against humanity. Count 4, extermination as a crime against humanity. Count 5, murder as a crime against humanity. Count 7, deportation as a crime against humanity, and Count 8, forced transfer as an inhumane act as a crime against humanity. For your role in these crimes we sentence you, Mr Krajisnik, to a single sentence of 27 years of imprisonment," Orie said in court. Krajisnik, a former right-hand man to Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, went on trial in February 2004 charged with genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and violating the laws or customs of war. Krajisnik, who was seized by NATO-led peacekeepers near Sarajevo in 2000, pleaded not guilty to all counts. Defence lawyers had called for Krajisnik's acquittal, saying witness testimony against him was not credible. Orie said Krajisnik wanted the Muslim and Croat populations moved out of Bosnian-Serb territories in large numbers, and accepted that a heavy price of suffering, death and destruction was necessary to achieve Serb domination. His family were at the hearing and his brother, Marko Krajisnik, said there was no proof he was guilty. He also said the family would appeal against the court's ruling. Srebrenica massacre survivors were not impressed with the verdict. "This was another reward for the crime committed against us in Bosnia and Herzegovina, another disappointment, and now I feel even more humiliated and even bigger victim of what happened to me. Because of trials and sentences like this one I feel that I will probably never find the body of my son," said Munira Subasic after watching the televised broadcast of the trial. "I keep asking myself if there is any justice and if there was a sentence that would be adequate to what he did," said Zumra Sehomerovic. Krajisnik was one of the most senior politicians on trial in The Hague since the death earlier this year of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, just months before his marathon trial had been expected to conclude. Sixty-one year old Krajisnik headed the parliament of the breakaway Bosnian Serb republic during the war, and was part of the presidency together with Karadzic and former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic. Plavsic, who admitted responsibility for atrocities in the Bosnia war and was jailed for 11 years in 2004, testified against Krajisnik earlier this year. Karadzic, who is still on the run, is charged with responsibility for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims and the brutal siege of Sarajevo.

ITN Source | September 27, 2006

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