Srebrenica war criminal transferred to Polish prison
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
21.03.2014 09:05
Radislav Krstic, one of the commanders of the former Bosnian Serb Army, was transferred to Poland on Thursday to complete his 35-year sentence for 'aiding and abetting genocide.'
Radislav Krstic: photo - Dzomijaner/CC
Krstic had been temporarily incarcerated in The Hague after being attacked by Muslim inmates in 2010 at Wakefield Prison in northern England.
His lawyers petitioned for him to be able to complete his sentence at another of the 17 countries to have signed an agreement with the United Nations concerning the internment of war criminals sentenced at the Hague Tribunal.
A Polish court ruled in December 2012 that the former major-general could be transferred to Poland.
Krstic arrived at a prison in the city of Piortrkow Trybunalski, central Poland, on Thursday.
According to Bartlomiej Turbiaz, spokesman for the region's prison service, Krstic will serve his sentence in a one-man cell and he will be under 24-hour surveillance.
Krstic was originally indicted for war crimes in 1998. The UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia initially found him guilty of 'genocide' in connection with the Srebrenica Massacre of July 1995, in which about 8000 Bosnian Muslims were killed.
However, the sentence was changed to “aiding and abetting genocide” in 2004 after an appeal by Krstic's lawyers. His original 46-year sentence was then cut by 11 years. (nh)
Source: PAP