A Belgrade judge on Friday sentenced four Serb paramilitaries to prison terms for the murder of 16 Muslims during the 1992-95 Bosnia war, a retrial of one of the first major war crimes cases handled by local courts.
The victims were Yugoslav nationals, living in the mainly Muslim Sandzak area of Serbia. They were kidnapped on Bosnian territory in October 1992 from a bus on their way to work, tortured and killed. Their bodies, thrown into the river Drina, were never found.
The four accused were members of the paramilitary group "The Avengers". Two of them are at large and were tried in absentia, including Milan Lukic, the groups' commander, who is also wanted by the UN war crimes court for other crimes committed during the Bosnia war.
"The torture and murder of people, innocent civilians cannot be a patriotic act but only a horrible crime," judge Vinka Beraha-Nikicevic said when she pronounced her sentence.
Lukic, Oliver Krsmanovic and Dragutin Dragicevic were sentenced to 20 years in prison and Djordje Sevic to 15 years.
The same sentences were handed down in September 2003, but were overturned by the supreme court on technicalities. Lawyers for the accused said they would appeal again.
Serbia, like other ex-Yugoslav states, has to show it can confront war crimes committed by its citizens and try them fairly in domestic courts in order to make further progress towards joining the European Union.