[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] has transferred former Bosnian Croat soldier Miroslav Bralo [ICTY case backgrounder] to Sweden to serve the remainder of his 20-year prison sentence, DPA reported Monday. Christer Isaksson, head of security for the Swedish Prison and Probation Service [official website], told DPA that Bralo had been transferred to Sweden several days ago, but he declined to say which prison is holding Bralo. He was sentenced in 2005 to 20 years' imprisonment after pleading guilty [JURIST reports] to murder, rape and torture charges stemming from the 1993 Bosnian war [Wikipedia backgrounder].

Bralo initially pleaded not guilty [JURIST report], but later changed his plea [plea agreement, PDF]. ICTY Judge Iain Bonomy [UN profile] said this move, along with Bralo's remorse and voluntary surrender to the war crimes tribunal, served as a mitigating factor reducing Bralo's sentence from a possible 25 years. Bralo belonged to a special Bosnian Croat force known as the Jokers that attacked Muslim villages in central Bosnia during the 1993 conflict and subsequently imprisoned and tortured civilians. The Appeals Chamber of the ICTY upheld [JURIST report] Bralo's 20-year prison sentence in May, dismissing his arguments that the trial chamber failed to consider relevant facts. DPA has more.