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Jovan Tintor (centre) in court. Photo: Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Bosnian state court in Sarajevo on Thursday found Jovan Tintor, the wartime head of the Serb-led Crisis Committee in the Vogosca municipality, guilty of crimes against Bosniak and Croat detainees and sentenced him to 11 years in prison.

Tintor was wartime Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic’s adviser and the head of Karadzic’s Serb Democratic Party in Vogosca.

He was found guilty on eight counts of having participated in a widespread and systematic attack on the non-Serb population in Vogosca in the period from April to the end of July 1992.

The court convicted him of responsibility for unlawful detentions, torture, beatings and making people do forced labour. It said the crimes were committed against a large number of Bosniak and Croat prisoners in several detention camps in Vogosca.

“The chamber has established that the defendant committed a crime against humanity by committing persecution. It has further determined, through an analysis of material evidence, that the defendant committed the crime by participating in a joint criminal enterprise,” said presiding judge Minka Kreho.

Kreho said the prosecution proved that Tintor had knowledge of the plans to detain Bosniaks in Vogosca, and had described the territory as “Serb land”.

The judge added that it had also proved that Tintor set up the Bunker prison camp and had authority to decide who would be detained.

“The chamber finds that Tintor had knowledge of the abuse of prisoners and could have stopped it,” said Kreho.

He was also responsible for the detention of prisoners in the Nakina Garage and Planjina Kuca facilities, and for the inhumane conditions there, she added.

Tintor was further found guilty of hitting a pregnant Bosniak woman.

He was acquitted on one count of the killings of 13 prisoners who were taken from the Bunker camp, and never seen again. Kreho said it was not proven who ordered the men to be taken away.

The first-instance verdict can be appealed.

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