Politician jailed 27 years for war crimes

[Tellurian]

Politician jailed 27 years for war crimes

From correspondents in The Hague

September 27, 2006


THE UN tribunal today sentenced Bosnian Serb politician Momcilo Krajisnik to 27 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

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.

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, captured 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.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20488910-1702,00.html

hmmmm...a precedent setting case?

[LynnTheDem]

1. Add "illegal wars of aggression and torture" and there's bush & Cabal.

[saigon68]

2. Time for the Chimp to step up and get his just desserts

[Tellurian]

3. Change the accused names...

And the Crimes are comparable.

The Hague is getting their War Crimes act together..

[Kagemusha]

4. The precedent was set long ago but...

Judging him guilty of so many things but not quite genocide because of not having the required intent.. if that's the evidence, that's a fair and meticulously reached verdict. In that sense, it is very important; show trials like Saddam Hussein's (though he's guilty of a huge ton of bad acts that he deserves a firing squad for) are not what the world needs.

But, dreaming that this sort of precedent will be used against American Presidents is just dreaming.

[Vidar]

5. Glad it happens somewhere.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Could be

This is justice.

Bush's military commissions are not.