Croatian general Mirko Norac was today sentenced to seven years in prison for crimes against rebel Serbs in the 1991-95 war at the end of a year-long trial.
In a test case for the European Union candidate country, Norac was accused of failing to prevent the murder and torture of civilians and war prisoners by Croatian troops during an army incursion into a rebel-held area in September 1993.
Reading the sentence, judge Marin Mrcela said Norac had breached the Geneva convention on the protection of civilians and treatment of war prisoners.
"As the commander of sector 1, Norac failed to prevent his subordinates from killing and torturing civilians and from destrying and ransacking their properties and killing their cattle, both during and after the operation."
The trial, which started in June last year, has been closely watched by the EU and human rights officials for indications of how Croatia is dealing with atrocities committed by some of its military leaders in the war of independence from Yugoslavia.
Rahim Ademi, an ethnic Albanian general of the Croatian army who was indicted on the same charges, was acquitted.