The former leader of Bosnia's Muslim army, Rasim Delic, was jailed for three years on Monday by the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for allowing the torture of Bosnian Serb soldiers by Islamic foreign fighters. Judge Bakone Justice Moloto, citing the "appalling brutal" mistreatment meted out by Islamic foreign fighters, said that tribunal judges had decided by majority that Delic was guilty of one count of cruel treatment by soldiers under his command.
Prosecutors argued that Delic had known of the mujahideens' inclination to violence and had failed to punish their atrocities. Moloto himself had dissented in the ruling, saying there was not enough evidence that Delic could have exercised sufficient control over the mujahideen.
By majority decision, the three-Judge panel acquitted Delic of three other counts in his indictment, of murder and cruel treatment. Delic, 59, is one of a handful of Bosnian Muslims to stand trial in The Hague for war crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. Most accused are Serbs but the court has indicted senior figures from all three Bosnian ethnic groups. With time already served, Delic will only have to serve just under two years of his sentence, the tribunal said.
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