[JURIST] Milan Martic [ICTY case backgrounder, PDF; BBC profile] was convicted [judgment summary] Tuesday by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] of 16 counts of crimes against humanity and violations of laws and customs of war, for crimes including persecutions, murder, torture, deportation, attacks on civilians, and wanton destruction of civilian areas. The former leader of the self-proclaimed "Republic of Serbian Krajina" (RSK) [Wikipedia backgrounder] in Croatia was sentenced to 35 years in prison [press release]. The ICTY trial chamber found that Martic exercised "absolute authority" over the RSK's Interior Ministry and security forces, and failed to prevent or punish war crime violations, and even encouraged the "widespread and systematic" persecution of Croatian non-Serbs. Martic was also found to be responsible for ordering an indiscriminate rocket attack on the Croatian capital of Zagreb, which killed seven civilians and injured at least 200 people.

Martic, whose trial began [JURIST report] in December 2005 after his 2002 surrender, was found not guilty of extermination. AP has more.