COURT OVERTURNS ACQUITTAL OF SERB FOR WAR CRIMES

BRUSSELS A United Nations war crimes court on Wednesday sentenced a Serbian ultranationalist to 10 years in prison, overturning his acquittal over crimes against humanity during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Vojislav Seselj, who leads the Serbian Radical Party and is a lawmaker in the Serbian parliament, was acquitted in 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges because of insufficient evidence.

Wednesday’s sentence centred on a speech Seselj gave in the Serbian village of Hrtkovci close to the Croatian border on May 6, 1992, which resulted in dozens of ethnic Croats being deported.

Seselj remains free because he has already spent nearly 12 years in custody since surrendering in 2003.