Bosnian Serb jail boss sentenced

Nikolic took pleasure from the murders, the judge said

A former Bosnian Serb prison commander has been sentenced to 23 years at the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

Dragan Nikolic, 46, pleaded guilty to the murder and torture of Muslim inmates, and aiding sexual violence at the Susica camp during the 1992-95 war.

According to the indictment, about 8,000 Muslims and other non-Serbs were held in cramped conditions at the camp between May and October 1992.

Nikolic, was the first person indicted by the tribunal, in 1994.

He was arrested by Nato-led peacekeepers in April 2000.

'Sadism'

The former metal worker has admitted to brutally injuring or killing prisoners:

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• He used metal piping, rifle butts and wooden bats to beat inmates

• One of the nine people he admitted to murdering was a 60-year-old man who was beaten unconscious with a metal pipe

• He also admitted forcing a bayonet and a pistol into prisoners' mouths

The prosecution had asked the tribunal to jail Nikolic for 15 years - after he agreed in September to change the initial plea of innocence he made in 2000.

But presiding judge Wolfgang Schomburg disagreed.

"The brutality, the number of crimes committed and the underlying intention to humiliate and degrade would render a sentence such as that which was recommended unjust," Judge Schomburg said.

"One of the most chilling aspects of these acts was the enjoyment he derived from this criminal conduct.

"These were not isolated acts but expressions of sadism by the accused," the judge said.