BOSNIAN STATE COURT JAILS SERBIAN WAR CRIMINAL JADRANKO PALIJA FOR 28 YEARS

SARAJEVO, Bosnia (November 29,2007) – A former member of the genocidal paramilitary formations of the Serbians living in Bosnia,Serbian war criminal Jadranko Palija has been sentenced by the Bosnian State Court to 28 years’ imprisonment for the participation in the mass murder of Bosnian civilians and the rape of one Bosnian woman during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

Serbian war criminal Jadranko Palija was found guilty yesterday by the Bosnian State Court of of having committed a series of crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Sanski Most area in the north-western part of Bosnia during the 1992-1995 Serbian aggression against Bosnia.

The specific charges against Serbian war criminal Jadranko Palija included his participation in the mass murder of Bosnian civilians who had been taken by the genocidal Serbian aggressor from Begici hamlet, near Kljevci village, to a nearby bridge following an attack on May 31, 1992.

He was also found guilty of the rape of a Bosnian woman in summer 1992, and of torture of Bosnian and Croatian civilians between 1993-95.

Pronouncing the verdict, the presiding judge, Minka Kreho, said that the Bosnian State Court considered that the sentence "is adequate bearing in mind the consequences" of the defendant’s crimes.

Earlier, in his closing arguments, defence attorney Ranko Dakic denied the allegations contained in the indictment, and said the witnesses, in particular Raif Begic, who said he had survived the killings at Vrhpolje bridge, were unreliable.

The Bosnian State Court dismissed the defence claim.


Queuing for death, witness Raif Begic watched other Bosnian civilians being mass murdered. After saving his life by jumping into the river, he continued to watch the killings, Kreho said.

Bosnia's war crimes court was set up in 2005 to take over some of the workload of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).