Norwegian Court Jails Bosnian For War Crimes
OSLO - A Bosnian-born man has been sentenced to five years in prison by a Norwegian court after being convicted of war crimes against Serbs in Norway's first war crimes trial since World War II.
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Mirsad Repak, a former member of the Croatian HOS military, has lived in Norway with his family since 1993 and became a naturalized citizen in 2001. The Oslo court found him guilty of 11 counts of arbitrary detention and one count of violence against civilian Serbs in the Dretelj detention camp in southern Bosnia, notorious for the guards' brutality.
He was, however, acquitted of the most serious charges, concerning several counts of torture and one count of rape, due to lack of evidence. Repak was also ordered to pay a total of 400,000 kroner ($56,400) in damages to the eight plaintiffs.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying he was only following orders from his superior officers.
"The court finds that the accused ... was not a simple soldier in the HOS military but that he held the position of a middle-ranking officer and that he had commands in missions linked to the military police," the judges explained in their verdict.
The case was the first war crimes trial to be heard in Norway since those held against suspected Nazi collaborators after World War II. The prosecution said it intended to appeal the sentencing.
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