Bosnia's war crimes court has jailed a former Serb police officer for twenty years on Friday for his role in the 1995 mass killing of Muslims in Srebrenica.Bozidar Kuvelja, 41, was found guilty of crimes against humanity but acquited of genocide.
Presiding judge Jasmina Kosovic said, "Kuvelja is convicted of taking part in the persecution and forced removal of Bosniaks from Srebrenica on religious and ethnic grounds and the killing of several dozen detainees at a warehouse in nearby Kravica between July 11 and July 14."
Kosovic said the judicial panel could not conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Kuvelja knew of the genocidal intent of the principal perpetrators of the massacres.
Kuvelja was an officer in the special police brigade of the Jahorina Training Center, part of the Bosnian Serb Interior Ministry. He was charged with helping round up Bosnian Muslim civilians, dividing men from women and transporting detainees to dozens of execution sites, including a warehouse in Kravica.
There, Kosovic said, "members of Kuvelja's brigade fired from automatic weapons and threw hand grenades into the packed warehouse."
Around 100 who at first survived the assault were lured out for medical treatment, only to be fired upon again by Kuvelja's brigade while forced to sing nationalist Serbian songs, said the judge.