25 Sep 14
Nikola Sainovic, the former deputy prime minister of Yugoslavia convicted of war crimes in Kosovo, will become the fourth Balkan war criminal to serve his sentence in Sweden.

Marija Ristic
BIRN
Belgrade

Sainovic will be sent to a Swedish jail after being found guilty by the Hague Tribunal of deportation, murder, persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds of ethnic Albanians during war in Kosovo in 1999.

His conviction was upheld on appeal by the UN-backed court in January, but his sentence was reduced from 22 to 18 years in prison.

According to the ruling, Sainovic intended to forcibly displace part of the Kosovo Albanian population and thereby change Kosovo’s ethnic balance to ensure continued control by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Serbian authorities over the province.

The verdict also said that Sainovic was one of the closest and most trusted allies of Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia, and so was informed about orders given to the army and police in Kosovo.

Former Yugoslav Army generals Nebojsa Pavkovic and Vladimir Lazarevic and former Serbian police general Sreten Lukic were convicted alongside him.

As well as Sainovic, Miroslav Bravo, a former member of the Croatian Defence Council convicted of war crimes in Bosnia, Miroslav Deronjic, a Bosnian official also convicted of war crimes in Bosnia and Biljana Plavsic, the former president of the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska, were also sent to serve their sentences in Sweden. Plavsic has since been released and Deronjic died in 2007.

Serbia has asked several times to become one of the countries in which Hague Tribunal convicts can serve their sentences.

But according to the United Nations, which set up the Hague court, people convicted of war crimes should not serve their sentences in their country of origin.

The Serbian government said in May last year that UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon had filed a request to the Hague Tribunal to determine whether it was possible to fulfil Belgrade’s demand for Serbian convicts to serve their sentences at home.

The final decision, according to the Tribunal’s rules, can only be made by the UN Security Council.