Veselin Vlahovic, a former Bosnian Serb paramilitary dubbed the ‘Monster of Grbavica’, was jailed on Friday for 45 years for inflicting a reign of terror on Sarajevo civilians during the 1992-95 war.
‘During systematic repression against the non-Serb population he participated in expulsion of his victims, he committed murders, he tortured, raped and imprisoned his victims,’ judge Zoran Bozic said at the sentencing in a packed Sarajevo courtroom.
The sentence against Vlahovic, a Montenegrin, is the most severe delivered for war crimes by a Bosnian court. Dressed in light blue shirt, Vlahovic, 43, showed no reaction when the verdict was read out, drawing applause from members of victims' associations in the heavily guarded courtroom.
Vlahovic, sentenced on all 60 counts in his indictment, committed the crimes between May and July 1992, in three Sarajevo neighbourhoods controlled by Serb forces during the war, Grbavica, Kovacici and Vraca.
‘He killed 31 people, took 14 people who have still been considered missing, raped 13 women,’ prosecutor Behaija Krnjic said. Vlahovic’s ‘name was the synonym for evil’, he added.
‘During systematic repression against the non-Serb population he participated in expulsion of his victims, he committed murders, he tortured, raped and imprisoned his victims,’ judge Zoran Bozic said at the sentencing in a packed Sarajevo courtroom.
The sentence against Vlahovic, a Montenegrin, is the most severe delivered for war crimes by a Bosnian court. Dressed in light blue shirt, Vlahovic, 43, showed no reaction when the verdict was read out, drawing applause from members of victims' associations in the heavily guarded courtroom.
Vlahovic, sentenced on all 60 counts in his indictment, committed the crimes between May and July 1992, in three Sarajevo neighbourhoods controlled by Serb forces during the war, Grbavica, Kovacici and Vraca.
‘He killed 31 people, took 14 people who have still been considered missing, raped 13 women,’ prosecutor Behaija Krnjic said. Vlahovic’s ‘name was the synonym for evil’, he added.