Serbian War Crimes

The four, all members of the Scorpions paramilitary group, received sentences ranging from five to 20 years in jail. A fifth defendant was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

In reading the verdict in Belgrade on Tuesday, Judge Gordana Bozilovic-Petrovic said the four paramilitaries were guilty of a war crime against a civilian population in executing six Muslim men and boys in July 1995 in the small village of Trnovo, in southeast Bosnia.

The Trnovo killings occurred in the same week as the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim males by Bosnian Serbs in the town of Srebrenica. The six victims in this case were also from the wider Srebrenica area.

The Scorpions videotaped the execution-type killings and distributed it among themselves. The tape later fell into the hands of a Serbian human rights activist and was broadcast on public television in Serbia in 2005.

In the video, the Scorpions taunt four Muslims who were wearing plain clothes and had their hands tied behind their backs. They force the four to lie face-down in a roadside ditch before shooting them in the back, all the while casually smoking and chatting.

Only one of the accused had pleaded guilty. Pera Petrasevic, bodyguard of Scorpions chief Slobodan Medic, said his commander gave the order, and he had to carry it out or be killed himself.

Maximum sentence

Slobodan Medic, and his main accomplice, Branislav Medic received the maximum sentence of 20 years.

"(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.

Petrasevic received 13 years while another accomplice, Aleksandar Medic, was jailed for five.

Outside the court, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told reporters "the verdict will be at least a partial satisfaction for the families of the victims."

He said however, he would appeal against the shorter sentences of five and 13 years given to two of the defendants as well as the acquittal.

Human rights activist Natasa Kandic, whose organization obtained the video and handed it over to the UN court, criticized the verdict.

"The verdict neither brings justice to the defendants for what they have done, nor for the victims killed only because they were Bosnian (Muslims) from Srebrenica," said Kandic.