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UN war crimes tribunal frees Bosnian Serb camp officer pending appeal

UN war crimes tribunal frees Bosnian Serb camp officer pending appeal

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A Bosnian Serb camp officer sentenced to seven years' jail by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for his role in what the tribunal described as "a hellish orgy of persecutions" was released from detention today pending his appeal.

Miroslav Kvocka, a former duty officer at the Omarska detention camp in the Prijedor area of northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina, was one of five men found guilty and sentenced for their involvement in crimes committed at the Omarska, Keraterm and Trnopolje camps during the Balkans conflict in 1992.

The camps were notorious for their treatment of Muslim and Croatian prisoners. Mr. Kvocka was found guilty of the crime against humanity of persecution as well as the war crimes of murder and torture.

On Wednesday, five judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), sitting in The Hague, decided to provisionally release Mr. Kvocka, who has appealed his conviction and his sentence. He will have to return to the tribunal at a date to be ordered.

At his trial, the court found that he was the Omarska camp commander's right-hand man and sometimes replaced the commander in his absence. As such, he not only knew of a system of persecution towards Muslim and Croat prisoners, but also "made it possible for the system to function."