Bosnian Serb's genocide conviction quashed

By Alexandra Hudson

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - The U.N. war crimes tribunal on Wednesday quashed the conviction of a former Bosnian Serb army commander for complicity in genocide in the Srebrenica massacre, but told him he still had to serve 15 years for related crimes.

Vidoje Blagojevic had helped with the transfer of Bosnian Muslims from the U.N.'s so-called safe area of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia in 1995.

But judges said without knowledge of the mass killings, Blagojevic's awareness of the transfer and other details was not enough to prove he knew of the principal perpetrators' genocidal intent beyond reasonable doubt.

They reduced his original sentence from 18 years to 15.

Around 8,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered after Srebrenica fell to Serb forces in July 1995. The killings became one of the most notorious episodes of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

Blagojevic had appealed against his 2005 convictions for complicity in genocide and other crimes.

While accepting complicity in genocide was not proven, the judges threw out his appeal against aiding and abetting murder, persecutions and inhumane acts.

They also dismissed his request for a new trial on the grounds that he had not been allowed to change his defence counsel, Michael Karnavas.