JURIST - Paper Chase: Former Bosnian Serb police officer sentenced for Srebrenica crimes

[JURIST] The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) [official website] Wednesday sentenced former Bosnian Serb special police officer Vaso Todorovic [BiH backgrounder] to six years in prison for committing crimes against humanity in the Srebrenica massacre [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive]. Todorovic was previously charged with genocide before accepting a plea agreement reducing the charge to crimes against humanity. As part of the agreement, Todorovic agreed to testify in related cases. Reuters has more. BIRN has local coverage.

Todorovic was charged [indictment] for his role in the 1995 forcible transfer of 40,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) from a UN-protected area in Srebrenica to Potocari where they would be permanently relocated. According to the indictment, on July 12, 1995 Todorovic took part in searching Bosniak villiages within in the UN-protected area in order to round up the Bosniak population and transfer them an area controlled by the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina . The indictment also alleged Todorovic took part in the July 13, 1995 capture of thousands of Bosniak men trying to escape the UN protected zone. During the relocation, Serbian forces summarily executed at least 7,000 Bosniak men between the ages of 13 and 17.

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