UN war crimes court doubles sentence of Bosnian Serb prison warden to 15 years

Ruling on appeals filed by both the defence and prosecution, the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague today doubled to 15 years the jail term imposed on the Bosnian Serb warden of a notorious prison in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina on charges including the murder and torture of non-Serbs.

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) dismissed the five grounds submitted by the defence and granted six of the seven submitted by the prosecution in the case of Milorad Krnojelac, a mathematics teacher before becoming warden of Kazneno-Popravni Dom prison in 1992.

The chamber quashed Mr. Krnojelac's acquittal in March 2002 on two counts of crimes against humanity (torture and murders) and two of violations of the laws or customs of war (torture and murders), convicting him on all four.

It expanded his criminal responsibility for the imprisonment of and inhumane acts against non-Serb civilians, and for cruel treatment for the detention conditions, finding him guilty as a co-perpetrator, and not only an accomplice.

The chamber also found him guilty as a co-perpetrator in the forced labour, deportations and expulsions as crimes against humanity, on which he had been acquitted by the Trial Chamber.