Bosnian court sentences former Serb soldier to 35 years in prison for war crimes

BELGRADE, Serbia (AA) - Bosnia’s state court on Tuesday sentenced former Serb soldier Predrag Bastah to 35 years in prison for committing war crimes during the 1990s.

The court in the capital Sarajevo sentenced Bastah to 20 years in prison. But as he is already serving a sentence for other wartime crimes, the court imposed a combined sentence of 35 years.

He was charged for participating in the killing of 34 Bosniak civilians in the Susica concentration and detention camp set up by the Republika Srpska Army (VRS) forces for Bosniaks and other non-Serbs in the Vlasenica municipality in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The court in the capital Sarajevo said that Bastah, as a member of the Republika Srpska Army (VRS), was found guilty of being part of a widespread and systematic attack of Bosniak civilians in Vlasenica in 1992.

Zoran Bozic, the chairman of the Trial Chamber, said that Bastah took part in the killing of 34 Bosniak civilians by directing civilians to the place where they were killed.

Goran Viskovic, a former member of the Republika Srpska Army, was also sentenced to 18 years in prison for crimes against humanity.

According to the victims' association, about 2,800 Bosniaks were killed in Vlasenica in 1992, 90% of them men and 10% women. 188 minors were also among those killed.

In 2005, the Hague tribunal sentenced the commander of this camp, a member of the Republika Srpska Army, Dragan Nikolic, to 20 years in prison for killing, raping and torturing Bosniak detainees in Susica.