Aljazeera.net, 05 May 2009
A Serb officer jailed for the 1991 massacre of people seeking refuge at a Croatian hospital has had his sentence more than tripled to 17 years by a UN war crimes appeal court.
Veselin Sljivancanin, who had been provisionally released in December 2007 after spending four years in custody, had returned to the court in the Netherlands for the judgement on Tuesday.
Judge Theodor Meron said: “The appeals chamber… imposes by majority a sentence of 17 years.
“A five years’ [the original term] imprisonment sentence does not adequately reflect the level of gravity of the crimes committed by Mr Sljivancanin.”
The original verdicts in the case had provoked outrage in Croatia where Ivo Sanader, the country’s prime minister, had protested to the UN, arguing that the sentences were too light.
ICC Observers 