Bosnian Serb to serve Srebrenica prison term in Poland

WARSAW - Agence France-Presse

Deputy Assistant of US Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker pays his respects to Bosnian Muslim victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre at Memorial Cemetery in Potocari, near Srebrenica, on November 28, 2012. Reeker arrived for an official three day visit to Bosnia amid a post-electoral feud in which Serbs are contesting a Muslim victory in the local October elections in the politically troubled Eastern-Bosnian city of Srebrenica. AFP PHOTO / ELVIS BARUKCIC

A former Bosnian Serb general who was the first person convicted of genocide by the UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal is set to serve out his sentence in Poland after a Warsaw court gave its green light Thursday.
 
The Warsaw regional court approved a request from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to provide prison space for Radislav Krstic.
 
Convicted by the UN tribunal for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Krstic was handed a 35-year sentence in 2004 and transferred to Britain.
 
Two years ago, he narrowly escaped a murder attempt by three Muslim fellow-inmates at Wakefield prison in northern England.
 
The ICTY decided to seek a new location for security reasons, and in September filed a formal request to Warsaw.
 
Poland and Britain are among 17 countries that have offered to handle convicts handed down prison terms by the tribunal, which is based in the Dutch capital The Hague.
 
"We are well prepared to take in this kind of prisoner and to ensure his security," said Poland's Justice Minister Jaroslaw Gowin.
 
Krstic's forces were responsible for the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica in July 1995 when they overran UN peacekeepers in the supposed "safe area".
 
It was deemed the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.
 
All told, Bosnia's 1992-95 war claimed 100,000 lives.
 
No date has been set for Krstic's transfer to Poland, where he will be the first war criminal to serve time at the behest of the ICTY.
 
He will also be the first convicted war criminal in a Polish prison since Erich Koch, a Nazi German who died behind bars in 1986.