Sarajevo - The War Crimes Chamber of Bosnia-Herzegovina's state Court Tuesday in Sarajevo found Bosnian Croat Pasko Ljubicic guilty of war crimes and sentenced him to 10 years jail. The verdict was reached on the basis of a plea agreement between Ljubicic and the Office of the Prosecutor.
Ljubicic, 43, was found guilty for his involvement in war crimes against the Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) population of the village of Ahmici in central Bosnia in April 1993, during the 1992-1994 Bosnian Croat - Muslim conflict within the country's 1992-1995 war.
As the commander of the 4th Military Police Battalion of the Croat Defence Council (HVO) Ljubicic, according to the indictment, "conveyed the order he received from his superior officer to his subordinates to attack the village of Ahmici."
Up to 120 Bosnian Muslim civilians were killed in the HVO's attack on the village.
Those who were not killed were expelled from the village, while numerous suffered serious mental and physical injuries.
Pasko Ljubicic was also found responsible "by virtue of his position as a superior for the offences perpetrated by his subordinates, over whom he had effective control, and the fact that he acted upon the order of his superior commander does not relieve him of criminal responsibility."
Ljubicic voluntarily surrendered to the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in November 2001.
In July 2006, ICTY decided to refer his case to Bosnia- Herzegovina's judicial authorities for further processing and Ljubicic was transferred to Sarajevo in September 2006.
In a separate case, two Bosnian Serbs were also sentenced for war crimes during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Mirko Todorovic, 54 and Milos Radic, 49, were each sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Both Todorovic and Radic were charged with crimes against humanity.
As members of the Bosnian Serb Army, Todorovic and Radic together with four other members of the army attacked, using rifles, 14 Bosnian Muslim (Bosniak) civilians that were hiding in an abandoned quarry in the vicinity of the eastern town of Bratunac in May 1992.
The group captured the civilians, tortured them, took money and valuables from them and escorted them to a nearby creek where they shot seven people from the detained group.
Todorovic and Radic were detained in May last year.
