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Top Bosnia Serb faces judgement Bosnia Serb faces genocide ruling
(about 2 hours later)
The Hague war crimes tribunal is due to hand down its judgement on one of the most senior Bosnian Serb leaders during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.The Hague war crimes tribunal is due to hand down its judgement on one of the most senior Bosnian Serb leaders during the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Momcilo Krajisnik is accused of genocide, and may face a life sentence. Momcilo Krajisnik, 61, is accused of genocide, and may face a life sentence.
Prosecutors say he planned and ordered widespread killings of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, in a campaign to drive them out of large areas of the country. Prosecutors say he planned and ordered widespread killings of Bosnian Muslims and Croats in a campaign to drive them out of large areas of the country.
Mr Krajisnik says he is innocent and knew little of what was happening in Serb-controlled areas of Bosnia.Mr Krajisnik says he is innocent and knew little of what was happening in Serb-controlled areas of Bosnia.
During the conflict, he was speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament and a close associate of the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, who is still at large. Mr Krajisnik is charged with the genocide, extermination, persecution and deportation of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats.
So far, the UN court in The Hague has handed down only two genocide convictions, both for Bosnian Serb officers who helped organise the Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Plavsic testimony
Mr Krajisnik was detained in 2001 in Pale, when French Nato troops blasted off the door to his home with explosives. During the conflict, Mr Krajisnik was speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament and a close associate of the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, who is still at large.
In court, Mr Krajisnik said he was a peace maker and that he did not know of a single crime.
But the prosecution argued during the two-year trial that he and Mr Karadzic masterminded a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
"Along with Karadzic, it was his hand that held the levers of power and authority in Bosnia," prosecutor Mark Harmon said at the start of the trial.
Mr Krajisnik was initially due to go on trial with a former Bosnian-Serb president Biljana Plavsic, but she pleaded guilty to persecution and is serving an 11-year prison sentence.
She testified against Mr Krajisnik in July, saying he sometimes even dominated Radovan Karadzic
'Mr No'
Mr Krajisnik was detained in 2000 in Pale, just outside Sarajevo, when French Nato troops blasted off the door to his home with explosives.
He co-founded the Serb nationalist party in Bosnia with Mr Karadzic.
He was the speaker in the Bosnian parliament before the Serbs walked out and war began.
He led the Bosnian Serb parliament during the war, in which about 110,000 died.
He was later one of the negotiators of the Dayton peace accords, when he earned the nickname "Mr No" for his uncompromising stance during negotiations.
He was the Serb representative in Bosnia's first post-war joint presidency, along with a Croat and a Muslim.
The UN tribunal in The Hague is aiming to begin winding down operations from 2008 with the final trials of those accused of war crimes in the Bosnian war to begin that year.
But the date may be extended should Radovan Karadzic or Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic be arrested.