[JURIST] The war crimes Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina [official website] convicted its third defendant in one week on Friday when it sentenced [press release] Dragan Damjanovic to twenty years in prison. Damjanovic was found guilty on six of the seven counts of crimes against humanity listed in his indictment [PDF; case backgrounder], including murder, torture and rape committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.

The ruling marks the War Crimes Court's ninth conviction since its establishment [JURIST report] last year. Earlier this week, the court sentenced [press release] a Bosnian Croat to thirteen years in prison and another Bosnian Serb to twenty-four years in prison [press release] for war crimes. Last month, the court sentenced the first defendant to be transferred [JURIST report] from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. Bosnian lower courts have already tried approximately 1000 war crimes cases to relieve the backlog of the ICTY, and some two dozen other suspects are awaiting trial at the war crimes court. Reuters has more.