WATCH: Archival footage shows Momcilo Perisic with Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic, who was arrested in May. Bakone Moloto, the presiding judge, reads out the sentence in court.
The UN war crimes tribunal has found the former chief of the Yugoslav army, Momcilo Perisic, guilty of murder, persecution, and attacks on civilians in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia during the Balkans wars of the 1990s, and sentenced him to 27 years in prison.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague found Perisic, 67, guilty of securing financial and logistical support for Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia and of helping them to plan and carry out war crimes, including the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrebica and the 42-month-long siege of Sarajevo.
However, the judges acquitted Perisic on charges he was directly responsible for crimes against humanity as a superior officer to leaders of the Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica.
He had pleaded not guilty on all charges.
Perisic was chief of the general staff of the Yugoslav People's Army from August 1993 to November 1998. He is the most senior Yugoslav army officer to be put on trial at the UN court.
The trial had lasted nearly three years, during which the court heard from more than 100 witnesses.
compiled from RFE/RL and agency reports
The UN war crimes tribunal has found the former chief of the Yugoslav army, Momcilo Perisic, guilty of murder, persecution, and attacks on civilians in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia during the Balkans wars of the 1990s, and sentenced him to 27 years in prison.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague found Perisic, 67, guilty of securing financial and logistical support for Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia and of helping them to plan and carry out war crimes, including the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrebica and the 42-month-long siege of Sarajevo.
However, the judges acquitted Perisic on charges he was directly responsible for crimes against humanity as a superior officer to leaders of the Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica.
He had pleaded not guilty on all charges.
Perisic was chief of the general staff of the Yugoslav People's Army from August 1993 to November 1998. He is the most senior Yugoslav army officer to be put on trial at the UN court.
The trial had lasted nearly three years, during which the court heard from more than 100 witnesses.
compiled from RFE/RL and agency reports