 BELGRADE, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - A Belgrade court on Friday found a former Serb paramilitary guilty of a 1999 massacre in Kosovo in a retrial that confirmed the original 20-year sentence handed down last year.
| Notice that Carla del Ponte had no role in this trial. |
Sasa Cvjetan, from the notorious Scorpions unit, was convicted of killing 14 ethnic Albanian civilians, mostly women and children, when his unit stormed the northern Kosovo town of Podujevo in March 1999. Cvjetan, 40, had received the maximum sentence under Serbian law at the time of the crime, but last year's ruling was later overturned by Serbia's Supreme Court for alleged procedural trial violations.
The retrial in Cvjetan's case - which in 2004 was seen as a key test for the Serbian judiciary to handle war crimes cases at home - lasted less than two weeks.
| Notice that Carla del Ponte had no role in this trial. |
After reading the final verdict, Judge Biljana Sinanovic said the most compelling evidence against Cvjetan was the fact that witnesses and survivors of the Podujevo massacre had recognized him.
| Notice that Carla del Ponte had no role in this trial. |
During the hearings, Cvjetan again denied he took part in the Scorpions' rampage in Podujevo that killed 14 and wounded five, claiming he was chosen to be a "scapegoat."
Thousands of ethnic Albanian civilians were killed during the conflict in Kosovo. |