Ex-Serbian commander 'Captain Dragan' sentenced to 15 years over murder, torture war crimes
3-4 minutes
Updated Tue 26 Sep 2017, 10:58pm
A Croatian court has sentenced a former Serbian paramilitary commander and Australian citizen to 15 years in prison for war crimes in the 1990s.
Key points:
- Dragan Vasiljkovic was found guilty of two charges including torturing and beating prisoners
- Holds dual Serbian-Australian citizenship after moving to Australia at age 15
- Claims the trial was rigged and "an oppressive, fascist process"
The municipal court in the coastal town of Split found Dragan Vasiljkovic, also known as Captain Dragan and Daniel Snedden, guilty of the killings and torture of imprisoned Croatian civilians and troops while he was a rebel Serb commander during the 1991 to 1995 Croatian war.
Vasiljkovic, 62, was born in Serbia before moving to Australia at the age of 15.
He returned to the Balkans to train Serbian rebels in 1991, when they took up arms against Croatia's secession from Yugoslavia.
He was extradited from Australia in July 2015, after fighting a 10-year legal battle against being handed over to Croatia's judiciary.
Vasiljkovic, who holds dual Serbian-Australian citizenship, was living in Perth and worked as a golf instructor.
The three-judge Croatian court panel found Vasiljkovic guilty of two of the three charges, which included torturing and beating imprisoned Croatian police and army troops and commanding a special forces unit involved in the destruction of Croatian villages.
He was found responsible for the death of at least two civilians.
About 60 prosecution witnesses were questioned during the trial, including those who said they were tortured by Vasiljkovic.
Vasiljkovic, who was widely believed during the war to be working for Serbia's secret service, has claimed innocence throughout the one-year trial, saying the whole process was rigged.
"This is an oppressive fascist process," Vasiljkovic said during his closing statements last week. "Not only did I not commit any crimes that I am charged with, I can only ask why I was brought here and charged in the first place."
The judges ruled that they will take into account the time Vasiljkovic served in detention in Australia and in a Croatian prison, meaning he has three and a half years of his sentence remaining. He has a right to appeal.
AP/ABC
Topics: history, community-and-society, unrest-conflict-and-war, law-crime-and-justice, croatia, serbia, yugoslavia, perth-6000, australia
First posted Tue 26 Sep 2017, 9:19am
