Former Bosnian Serb senior security official and police chief Stojan Zupljanin, right, welcomes his lawyer prior to his judgment in the courtroom of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday March 27, 2013. UN judges deliver verdicts in the trial of two former Bosnian Serb police chiefs, Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin, both charged with crimes including persecution, extermination, murder, torture and deportation for their alleged roles in a criminal conspiracy led by Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic to force Muslims and Croats out of what they considered to be Serb territory in Bosnia. (AP Photo/Michael Kooren, pool)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal has convicted two senior Bosnian Serbs of playing important roles in a campaign of murder, torture and persecution targeting Muslims and Croats during the 1992-95 Bosnian war and sentenced them both to 22 years imprisonment.
Mico Stanisic was interior minister in the breakaway Bosnian Serb republic set up during his country’s bitter war, while Stojan Zupljanin was a senior security official in charge of police.
Presiding Judge Burton Hall said Wednesday both men were in a position to prevent or punish crimes and did neither.
Prosecutors charged them both with involvement in a criminal conspiracy led by Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic and his military chief, Gen. Ratko Mladic, to force Muslims and Croats out of what they considered to be Serb territory in Bosnia.
