Norwegian court sentences man in Balkan war crimes case

Apr 13, 2010, 15:13 GMT

Oslo - An appeals court in Norway slightly reduced Tuesday the sentence of a Norwegian national of Bosnian descent for crimes against Serbian civilians during the Balkans war.

Mirsad Repak, 43, was sentenced to a four-and half-year jail term in the court ruling which found him guilty in 13 of 14 counts.

A lower court in December 2008 had handed down a five-year sentence.

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

The prosecutor had called for an eight-year sentence in the appeal.

The charges dated back to 1992 when Repak was 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 mistreated.

Repak later fled to Norway and was granted Norwegian citizenship.

His laywer told the Norwegian news agency NTB that an appeal to the supreme court was likely.

The courts also 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.