SERBIA:A Belgrade court jailed four Serb paramilitaries yesterday over the filmed execution of Bosnian Muslim civilians from Srebrenica, in Serbia's first trial of men accused of involvement in Europe's worst massacre since the second World War.
The former members of the notorious Scorpions unit were sentenced to between five and 20 years in prison for killing six young men from Srebrenica, the so-called UN safe haven where some 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered by ethnic Serb forces in July 1995.
A fifth defendant was acquitted, while a Croatian court has already jailed a Croatian Serb member of the Scorpions who was identified from the gruesome "trophy video" they made of the executions. When the grainy footage was unearthed by a Serb human rights activist and broadcast on television in 2005, it shocked many Serbs who had hitherto rejected western accusations of war crimes against their soldiers, and who still idolised Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb leaders accused of leading the attack on Srebrenica.
"The defendants are guilty . . . of killing six prisoners of Muslim origin," said judge Gordana Bozilovic-Petrovic, who gave sentences of 20 years to the former commander of the Scorpions, Slobodan Medic, and his main accomplice, Branislav Medic.
"[ Slobodan] Medic ordered the three defendants and two others to execute the prisoners, take them away from the site and make it seem as if they had been killed in conflict," the judge said.
Pero Petrasevic, who admitted murder, was given 13 years, and Aleksandar Medic received a five-year sentence; a fifth defendant, Aleksandar Vukov, was cleared due to lack of evidence.
The men were arrested after the broadcast of a chilling video, which shows them smoking, laughing and joking while leading a group of Muslim men, their hands tied behind their backs, off a country road and into a sunny glade. There, they mock their captives, before making them lie face down in a ditch and firing bullets into their backs.
"By committing such acts against defenceless civilians, by showing off their power and not showing remorse, the defendants did not give the court the option of passing lower sentences," the judge said as she delivered her verdict.
Serbia's chief war crimes prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, said he would appeal the acquittal and the lighter sentences given to two of the defendants.
"Everyone can now be assured that Serbia's judicial bodies are ready and able to deal with such serious cases," he added.
The trial was closely watched by US and EU officials who are angered by Serbia's failure to catch Dr Karadzic and Gen Mladic, and who decry the persistent strength of the country's ultranationalist politicians.
About 30 relatives of the victims attended the final day of the trial. Nura Alispahic, whose 16-year-old son was killed, said: "These people will leave jail one day, but my child will never come out of the ground."
