[JURIST] The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague Tuesday affirmed [judgment summary; press release] the November 2005 lower court acquittal [JURIST report] of former Bosnian Army commander Sefer Halilovic [ICTY case backgrounder] on war crimes charges [indictment]. In dismissing the prosecution's appeal, the five-judge panel held that prosecutors failed to demonstrate at trial that Halilovic exercised effective command over troops who allegedly murdered Bosnian Croat civilians during the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war.

In 2005, the ICTY ruled [judgment text, PDF; press release] that prosecutors had failed to prove that Halilovic, at the time the most senior Bosnian Muslim commander to face trial at the tribunal, had a "superior-subordinate relationship" with troops that killed 62 Croat civilians in 1993 during an operation by Muslim forces to end the blockade of the city of Mostar. AP has more.