Bosnian war criminal sent to UK

September 9, 2009

A former Bosnian Serb leader convicted of war crimes has been sent to the United Kingdom to serve out the remaining years of his sentence. Momcilo Krajišnik is one of the highest-ranking officials convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Krajišnik held important positions in the run up to and during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which raged from 1992–95. He sat on the nationalist Serbian Democratic Party's Main Board, was in the National Security Council and was the head of the Bosnian Serb Assembly. He used these positions to try and purge non-Serbs from occupied territories.

He received a 27-year sentence in 2006 but this was reduced after an appeals court quashed convictions for murder, extermination and persecution. He remains convicted of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and persecution, charges totaling eleven offences.