Croatian Serb Leader Moved to Estonian Jail
| 29 June 2009 |
Milan Martic
Martic will serve his sentence in a prison in the eastern Estonian town of Tartu.
Martic was indicted by the ICTY in July 1995, but surrendered in 2002. He pleaded not guilty to all counts from the indictment, which included murder, persecution, inhumane treatment, forced displacement, plunder of public or private property and wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages.
According to the indictment, Martic "helped organize an ethnic cleansing campaign of Croats and other non-Serbs from Krajina where 78,000 lived and virtually the entire non-Serb population was forcibly removed, deported or killed". His trial started in December 2005and ended in January 2007.
Martic was the last president of the self-declared Serb republic of Krajina until the summer of 1995, when Croatian troops took control of the area. Until then, almost 30 per cent of Croatia's territory was controlled by the breakaway Serb republic.
During the war in Croatia, Martic held various leadership positions, including president, defense minister and interior minister. Since he left Croatia, Martic has been living in Bosnia and Serbia.
2009-06-29 20:00:06