A Bosnian Serb was sentenced to eight years in prison by The Hague tribunal today for beating to death and torturing prisoners while working as a guard at a Serb-run detention camp in the 1992-5 Bosnian war.
Predrag Banovic, a former waiter who turned 34 today, pleaded guilty in June to one count of crimes against humanity after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Four other charges were dropped under the deal and prosecutors and defence both recommended an eight-year term.
"The trial chamber has found the accused abused his position while on duty at the camp, mistreating and humiliating detainees in total disregard of human life and dignity," Judge Patrick Robinson told the UN International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Banovic was charged in 1995 with abusing, torturing and killing detainees while working at Bosnia's notorious Keraterm detention camp in 1992. He pleaded not guilty to all five counts in 2001.
Banovic chose former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to serve as best man at his wedding in the court's high-security detention unit last year.
His twin brother Nenad, who was also charged with participating 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 a case of mistaken identity.