Bosnian Serb pleads guilty to raping Muslim women

[sonz]

A former Bosnian Serb military police chief pleaded guilty to raping and torturing Muslim women during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.

Dragan Zelenovic, 44, is the first suspect to have admitted to committing crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

In exchange for his guilty plea to 7 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining 7 charges against Zelenovic.

After Bosnian Serb forces took over the eastern Bosnian town of Foca in April 1992, military police started arresting Bosnian Muslims and Croats.

Several Bosnian Muslim women were held in houses that were effectively used as brothers operated by paramilitary troops.

Zelenovic was one of the soldiers involved in seizing the town and raping the women.

At a hearing session of the UN tribunal in The Hague, Zelenovic told an appalling story of two Bosnian Muslim girls, one of them aged 15, who suffered repeated gang rapes between July and October 1992.

He admitted that he repeatedly raped the two girls and that he allowed two other Serbian soldiers to rape them, as well as other Bosnian Muslim women.

Prosecutors recommend a sentence of between 10 to 15 years in prison, but the defense is asking for 7 to 10 years.

The judges, who aren’t bound by the recommendations of both sides, will set a date for a sentencing hearing, after which they will hand down a sentence.

Zelenovic, who was arrested in Russia in August 2005, was transferred to the ICTY in June last year after nearly 10 years on the run.

In February 2001, the UN court sentenced 3 other Bosnian Serb soldiers to up to 28 years in prison for raping, torturing, and enslaving Bosnian Muslim women and girls in Foca.

-- AJP and Agencies

[Erundur]

Its a shame that he won't be executed.

May Allah (swt) except those women in Jannah.