Two Former Bosnian Serb Officials Jailed For 22 Years

Former high ranking Bosnian Serb officials Mico Stanisic (right) and Stojan Zupljanin (left) arrive at the courtroom to attend trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague on March 27.

The United Nations' war crimes court has sentenced two former Bosnian Serb officials to 22 years in prison each for atrocities committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on March 27 found Mico Stanisic and Stojan Zupljanin guilty of playing important roles in a campaign of murder, torture, and persecution of Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the war.

Stanisic, 58, was interior minister in the breakaway Bosnian Serb republic set up during the war. Zupljanin, 61, was a senior security official.

Prosecutors had sought life sentences for both men.

Stanisic and Zupljanin were close aides of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who also is on trial at the ICTY on genocide charges.

Stanisic surrendered to the tribunal in 2005. Zupljanin was arrested in 2008.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters