Srebenica Muslim commander charged with war crimes

A former Bosnian Muslim commander named Naser Oric was charged alongside one of his former lieutenants Thursday with war crimes during the country's 1992-1995 war, Bosnian prosecutors said.

Oric, who led Muslim forces in the eastern town of Srebenica, and Sabahudin Muhic were charged with the murder of three Serbian prisoners of war in 1992.

The prosecutor's office in the capital Sarajevo said the murders were a "war crime against prisoners".

Oric, 48, was arrested in June in Switzerland on a warrant issued by Serbia, which also wanted to try him for war crimes against ethnic Serbs in Srebenica.

But Switzerland decided to extradite him to his home country, to face charges there instead.

His arrest sparked an outcry among Bosnian Muslim leaders and families of the victims of the 1995 Srebenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces.

In 2006, Oric was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to two years in prison for not doing enough to protect Srebenica's Serb population during the war.

He was acquitted on appeal.
Source: AFP