Bosnian Serb soldier convicted by UN tribunal to serve jail term in Belgium
27 February 2008 - A former Bosnian Serb soldier and military policeman convicted by a United Nations war crimes tribunal of torturing
and raping Muslim women and girls during the Balkan wars of the 1990s will serve the remainder of his 15-year jail term
in Belgium.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which sits in The Hague in the Netherlands,
announced today that Dragan Zelenovi ć has been transferred to detention in Belgium.
Mr. Zelenovi ć pleaded guilty last year before the ICTY to seven counts of rape - including gang rape - and torture for
his actions in the town of Foca in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.
After Bosnian Serb forces took over Foca municipality in April 1992, they took local women and girls to detention
facilities, where they were interrogated and subject to brutal beatings, sexual assaults and humiliating and degrading
conditions. Other women were detained in houses and apartments used as brothels by the mainly paramilitary soldiers.
In his statement of guilt to the Tribunal, Mr. Zelenovi ć said: "I feel sorry for all the victims who were victimized by
anything that I did, and that is why I express from this forum my deepest remorse and regret."
In October last year the ICTY's appeals chamber rejected Mr. Zelenovi ć's appeal against the length of his prison
sentence.
Belgium is one of 14 European countries that have signed an agreement with the ICTY to enforce sentences imposed by the
Tribunal on convicted individuals, and nearly 40 people either have served or are currently serving their sentence in
one of those countries.
ENDS