A former Bosnian Serb paramilitary leader was jailed for 34 year on Friday for committing war crimes, the longest sentence yet given by a Bosnian court, according to Reuters. Gojko Jankovic, 52, was found guilty on seven counts of crimes against humanity for acts committed during a "ethnic cleansing" campaign early in the 1992-95 war to purge eastern Bosnia of Muslim population. Presiding Judge Zorica Gogala at the war crimes court said "the number and frequency" of the crimes in and around the eastern town of Foca required the long prison term. The previous longest sentence was 24 years. Jankovic, who intends to appeal, was one of nine war crimes suspects transferred from the Hague for trial at Bosnia's war crimes court, which has already sentenced two Bosnian Serbs for crimes in Foca. The town was one of several across Bosnia that have become symbols of large-scale atrocities against Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces during their onslaught in the spring and summer of 1992.
