The Trial Chamber of The Hague Tribunal convicted today, in a first-instance verdict, the former president of the so-called Republic of Serbian Krajina Milan Martic to 35 years of imprisonment for war crimes committed on the territories of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. (12-JUN-07)

Written by HRH / Mirsad Pandzic

In their closing word in January this year, the prosecution requested life sentence for Martic explaining that his crimes were particularly severe and were committed over a long period of time, thus justifying the most severe punishment foreseen by the Statute of The Hague Tribunal.

Crimes
The defence requested acquittal. Martic, the former Minister of Interior and president of the so-called Republic of Serbian Krajina, was indicted for crimes against humanity, violation of laws and customs of was committed in the period from August 1991 to August 1995 in form of persecutions, extermination, murder, imprisonment, torture, deportation, ruthless destruction and robbery in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Judgment
Martic was convicted as a participant of an organized criminal enterprise led by the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, and participant of ethnic cleansing of non-Serb population from parts of the Croatian territory.

Martic was also convicted for shelling of Zagreb in 1995 and a series of other crimes committed against Croatian civilians in villages from Saborsko to Škabrnje, where hundreds of people, mostly elderly and women, were killed.