Srebrenica massacre: Bosnian-Serb convicted
Bosnian-Serb ex-soldier imprisoned for seven years after being found guilty of Srebrenica massacre war crimes
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Thursday, 06, Nov 2008 05:08
A Bosnian-Serb ex-soldier has been found guilty of war crimes over the Srebrenica Massacre.
Bosnia's top war crimes court has sentenced Mladen Blagojevic to seven years imprisonment.
Blagojevic was convicted for inhumane treatment of Bosnian Muslim prisoners after the Bosnian-Serb forces overtook Srebrenica in July 1995. He persecuted these prisoners with the intent to harm on the basis of ethnic, religious, and political prejudices, according to a court statement last Thursday.
Thousands of refugees gathered in Srebrenica under the protection of United Nations peacekeepers during the war in Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1995. Eight thousand of the refugees who were taken prisoner during the massacre by Bosnian-Serb forces were slaughtered. Men and boys who were separated from their families were taken to warehouses to be executed by the military policemen.
Witnesses to Blagojevic's brutal behaviour during what is now also called the Srebrenica Genocide backed the sentence, though insufficient evidence meant he was only convicted on the lesser charges.
Blagojevic was one of four others who were arrested for crimes against humanity, but the other three were acquitted due to this lack of evidence.