Norwegian court sentences man in Balkan war crimes case

Dec 2, 2008, 9:41 GMT

Oslo - A Norwegian national of Bosnian descent was sentenced Tuesday to a five-year jail term for crimes against Serbian civilians during the Balkans war.

The district court in Oslo convicted Mirsad Repak on 11 counts of illegal detention of civilians, but he was cleared of a charge of rape, aggravated assault and also of crimes against humanity.

Repak, 42, was also ordered to pay damages of 400,000 kroner (57,000 dollars) to eight plaintiffs, including a woman who was tortured during interrogation.

The court deducted 294 days he spent in custody from the sentence.

The charges dated back to 1992. The court ruled that Repak had been a member of the Croatian militia group HOS that operated a prison camp in Dretelj in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The detainees were held for more than a month and subjected to ill-treatment, the court said.

The prosecution had maintained that Repak was linked to assault and other crimes against 17 civilians held at the camp, and had called for a 10-year prison sentence.

Repak later fled to Norway and was granted Norwegian citizenship. In Norway, he had employment and there were no complaints against his behaviour here, judge Finn Haugen said.

The prosecution planned to appeal, while the defence said it would study the ruling pending a possible appeal.

Several witnesses testified via video link during the trial that opened at the end of August.

Haugen said the court had considered if the case should have been dropped since it was based on a section of the penal code that did not come into force until after the crimes were committed.

The court also considered whether the statute of limitations applied to the crimes but decided it did not, Haugen said.

Haugen later told reporters he would not be surprised if the supreme court would be asked to consider the case.

Defence lawyer Heidi Bache-Wiig had argued that it was not permissible to apply laws in a back-dated manner.

The case was the first time a person has been charged with war crimes in Norway since the aftermath of World War II.