JURIST - Paper Chase: ICTY reduces sentence of former Bosnian Serb leader by two years

[JURIST] The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Tuesday slightly reduced the 32-year sentence [opinion, PDF; ICTY press release] of former Bosnian Serb leader Radislav Brdjanin [ICTY case backgrounder], but upheld the majority of his 2004 convictions [JURIST report] for crimes against Croats and Muslims during the Bosnian War [Wikipedia backgrounder]. Brdjanin's sentence was reduced by two years because the tribunal reversed certain convictions against him for aiding and abetting torture and for destroying the city of Bosanska Krupa. The court nonetheless said its reduction of sentence is "quite limited" because hundreds of other charges against Brdjanin remain, including approving murders, torture and deportations during the war.

Brdjanin was a member of the Serbian Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDS) [Wikipedia backgrounder], created by Radovan Karadzic [BBC profile; ICTY case backgrounder], who remains a fugitive [JURIST report] wanted by the Hague-based court on war crimes charges. Brdjanin led the autonomous Serbian region of Krajina during the 1992-95 war which claimed the lives of more than 1,600 Muslims and Croats and deported thousands more from the region. Reuters has more.

For a one-stop snapshot of the latest legal news that matters, with breaking documents, new legal videos, live law-related webcasts, commentary by expert law professors and more - all updated through the day in real time, with no ads and no registration barriers - visit JURIST's homepage and check back often...