A Bosnian Serb accused of beating and torturing prisoners at a Serb-run detention camp during the Bosnian war pleaded guilty to one count of crimes against humanity at The Hague tribunal today.
Predrag Banovic pleaded guilty to the charge of persecution on political, racial or religious grounds after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Four other charges, including murder and cruel treatment, were dropped under the deal. "Your honour I plead guilty," Banovic told judges at a special hearing in the United Nations war crimes tribunal. He is expected to be sentenced later this year.
The 33-year-old former waiter was charged in 1995 with abusing, torturing and killing detainees while working as a guard in Bosnia's notorious Keraterm detention camp in 1992.
Banovic, who chose former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to serve as best man at his wedding in the court's high-security detention unit last year, had pleaded not guilty to all five counts in 2001.
Banovic's twin brother Nenad, who was also charged with taking part in beatings and torture at the camp during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, was released by the court last year when prosecutors withdrew charges due to lack of evidence.
Keraterm was one of three main Serb-run camps in northwestern Bosnia where thousands of Muslim and Croat civilians were held and hundreds killed and tortured.
The court indicted the twins in July 1995 but the hunt for them took a serious wrong turn four years later when two men mistaken for the Banovic brothers were arrested by NATO-led SFOR troops in Bosnia and flown to The Hague. It was later discovered that those twins were the victims of an embarrassing case of mistaken identity.