JURIST - Paper Chase: Serbia paramilitary members shown in taped Srebrenica executions found guilty

[JURIST] Serbia's war crimes court found four members of the Scorpions paramilitary group guilty of murder Tuesday for their role in the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica [JURIST news archive]. The charges [JURIST report] were based on video footage [JURIST video; JURIST report] shot by the four men as six Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica were shot dead. Scorpions commander Slobodan Medic [Trial Watch profile] and another defendant received 20-years prison sentences while the only defendant to admit to the shootings, Pero Petrasevic [Trial Watch profile], received a 13-year sentence. The fourth man was sentenced to five years as an accomplice and the fifth defendant was cleared of all charges.

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY backgrounder; BBC profile] and his military commander Ratko Mladic [ICTY backgrounder; JURIST news archive] are wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for alleged crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, including organizing the massacre in Srebrenica, but both remain fugitives to date. In February 2007, the International Court of Justice rendered its judgment [text; summary] in Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro [ICJ docket], recognizing that the mass killings of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica were an act of genocide and concluding that Serbia "should have made the best effort within their power to try and prevent the tragic events then taking shape." The Guardian has more.

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