Posted on 07/02/2005 12:44:34 PM PDT by ma bell
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Iraqi-born Bosnian gets five years for war crime
01 Jul 2005 12:21:08 GMT Source: Reuters
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SARAJEVO, July 1 (Reuters) - Bosnia's state court handed down its first war crimes sentence on Friday, sending an Iraqi-born Bosnian to prison for five years for helping foreign Islamic fighters abduct three Croat civilians.
The court said in a statement that Abduladhim Maktouf had helped members of a unit called Al Mujahid abduct the civilians in late 1993 and driven the van in which they were transported to a detention camp in the central Bosnian village of Orasac.
Two Serb civilians were later brought to the camp, one of whom was beheaded, the statement said.
"In that camp members of the Al Mujahid unit beat and maltreated hostages and the culmination was the beheading of Dragoljub Popovic," it added.
The four other civilians were later released.
Hundreds of mostly Arab Islamic fighters flocked to Bosnia during the 1992-95 war to help their Muslim brethren in what they saw as an unequal fight against much better armed Serbs.
Some committed war crimes in central Bosnia. Three Bosnian Muslim wartime officers, including the-then government army commander Rasim Delic, have been indicted for these atrocities at the United Nations war crimes court in the Hague.
The minimum sentence for war crimes against civilians is 10 years but the court convicted Maktouf of a lesser crime because he only assisted with the abduction, the statement said.
Bosnia's lower-level courts have tried war crimes with the approval of the U.N. war crimes court for years.
The new three-month-old war crimes chamber of the state court will take over some mid-level cases from the U.N. tribunal and launch its own cases too.
This to those who deny that foreign-based Arabs/foreigners were never fighting the Serbs or the Croatians. This is just another example there were 4000-5000 Hajis fighting the Serbs/Croatians from 1991 to present-day.
ping fyi
"one of whom was beheaded..."
European justice requires only 5 years in jail.
May many more foreign jihadists fighting in the former Yugoslavia be captured, tried and thrown in prison.
100% agreement here. But if the victims were Croats and not Serbs, you won't see much from the usual Balkan posters.
No matter the different ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia, each one has their share of rotten apples and unless they admit that fact, those defending one side or the other are being very dishonest.
More recently the worst influence has been that of foreign jihadist killers.
You mean the ones who infer that all Serbs deserve such a fate because of Srebrenica (Squawk!)?
I agreed with the proferred opinion on "jihadists". And there's eight posts here.
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