Bosnian Serb wins genocide appeal

Bosnian Serb wins genocide appeal

Blagojević was convicted in January 2005 of war crimes and complicity in genocide and remains in jail, though his sentence was reduced from 18 to 15 years.

A five-judge appeals panel at the Hague Tribunal said Blagojević should have been acquitted on the genocide charge because the original trial judges ruled that he did not know of the mass murders and only provided logistical support.

That meant he did not share in the intent to commit genocide, said presiding appeals judge Fausto Pocar.

"On the basis of the foregoing, the appeals chamber ... reverses his conviction for complicity in genocide," said Pocar.

The appeals judges upheld Blagojević's other convictions for aiding and abetting murder, persecutions on political and racial grounds and inhumane acts.

They also upheld the murder, extermination and persecution on racial grounds convictions of Dragan Jokić, 49, a major in the Bosnian Serb army's Zvornik brigade, and left his nine-year sentence unchanged.

In 2005, prosecutors had sought 15-20 years in prison for Jokić and 32 years for Blagojević. Some observers criticized the original sentences as too light.

Both men were acquitted of allegations of command responsibility. The court said the men had merely passed on orders, rather than giving them.

The alleged architects of the massacre, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić and his wartime military chief Ratko Mladić, are both at large, more than a decade after being indicted for genocide.