[JURIST] A Croatian district court judged convicted a retired Croatian general of war crimes Friday for failing to prevent his soldiers from torturing and killing Serbs and destroying their property during the Croatian War of Independence. Retired Gen. Mirko Norac [case information, PDF] knew that his soldiers were torturing and killing people and destroying property, but was held to have violated his duty [Al Jazeera report] by neither stopping it nor punishing the soldiers who killed 23 civilians and five prisoners of war, tortured at least five victims and destroyed about 300 homes. Nordac was sentenced to seven years in prison in addition to the 12-year sentence he is already serving for planning a 1991 killing of Serbs. The judge acquitted retired Gen. Rahim Ademi, whose case was tried with Nordac's, because Ademi did not have sufficient authority during the war crimes to be held accountable. Both sides plan to appeal [B92 report]. The International Herald Tribune has more.

Norac pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] after voluntarily surrendering to the tribunal following his indictment [JURIST report] in 2004. The indictments [text] against him and Ademi were consolidated that same year. The ICTY transferred [JURIST report] the case to Croatia in 2005, and both generals again pleaded not guilty [JURIST report].