Two jailed for war crimes in Bosnian conflict

Nov 22, 2010, 16:21 GMT

Belgrade - Serbia's War Crimes Court sentenced Monday two former officials to prison terms for their role in torturing and killing some 700 Muslims in eastern Bosnia during the 1992-95 conflict in that country.

Branko Grujic and Branko Popovic were found guilty of involvement in the killings in the town of Zvornik, near the Bosnian-Serbian border from May to July 1992.

Grujic, a municipal official in Serb-controlled Zvornik during the war, was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and Popovic, a former territorial defense commander, was given 15 years.

The prosecutor's office said that the sentence was 'inadequate' because of the number of victims and the brutality of the crimes. They said they would appeal but did not specify what prison sentence would be satisfactory.

Serbia has prosecuted dozens of people for crimes committed during the bloody breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

However, the most-wanted war crimes suspects - Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic - remain on the run. Failure to capture them has blocked Serbia's path towards European Union membership.

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