Reuters AlertNet Lite - Bosnian Serb ex-mayor to serve sentence in France

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Bosnian Serb ex-mayor to serve sentence in France

12 Jan 2007 18:26:38 GMT
Source: Reuters

AMSTERDAM, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A former Bosnian Serb mayor sentenced to 40 years for orchestrating the 1992 extermination and expulsion of non-Serbs in Bosnia will serve his prison term in France, the U.N. war crimes tribunal said on Friday.

Milomir Stakic, mayor of Prijedor municipality in northwest Bosnia, was convicted of murder, extermination, and persecution in 2003.

The U.N. tribunal in the Hague found he was responsible for more than 1,500 killings and the deportation of about 20 000 non-Serbs, as Bosnian Serb forces swept through towns and villages in Prijedor during the conflict for Bosnia's independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.

Stakic's original sentence of life imprisonment was reduced to 40 years on appeal.

Stakic was a prominent member of the Serbian Democratic Party led by Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, who is one of the tribunal's most wanted men, charged with genocide.

Prijedor was divided between Serbs and Muslims before the Bosnian war, but by 1993 Serbs accounted for about 90 percent of the population. It was a vital corridor connecting Serb-dominated areas of Krajina to the west with Yugoslavia.

War crimes suspects are held at the tribunal's detention centre in The Hague until their cases have ended. Those convicted have served their sentences several countries, including Germany, France and Sweden.

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Last updated:Fri Jan 12 18:26:46 2007