UN tribunal serves 35 year jail term to former Serb leader

Jun 12, 2007, 14:08 GMT

Former Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic, accused of hundreds of murders and ordering the shelling of Zagreb, awaits his verdict in a courtroom of the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, 12 June 2007 EPA/FRED ERNST / POOL

The Hague - The UN War Crimes Tribunal found former Serbian leader Milan Martic guilty on serious war crimes charges Tuesday and sentenced him to 35 years in prison.

The tribunal, after a trial lasting over a year, held him responsible for the murder of hundreds of Croatians and the expulsion of thousands of others in the Krajina region of Croatia which the Serbs had laid claim to during the civil war in the early 1990s.

Martic, now 52, had been president in the unilaterally-declared Serb republic in Krajina and had worked to expel all non-Serbs - chiefly Croatians - from the region.

The forces under him resorted to murder, mistreatment and destruction against civilians, the court found. The aim was to unite Krajina with Serbia and with the Serbian areas of Bosnia.

The court particularly recalled Martic's order for the rocket assault on Zagreb in May 1995, a militarily senseless act which killed several civilians and wounded hundreds more.

'Martin was obligated to assure the respect for human rights, but he abused his offices,' chief judge Bakone Justice Moloto said.