[JURIST] The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] said Tuesday that it has transferred [press release] a former Bosnian Croat military commander who was convicted of war crimes related to the forced relocation and detention of Muslims during the 1991-95 Balkan Wars to an Italian prison to serve out his sentence. In 2003, the ICTY convicted Vinko Martinovic [case materials, PDF] of persecution, murder and plunder, among other charges, and sentenced him to 18 years in prison. The UN News Service has more.

ICTY suspects are held at a detention unit [ICTY backgrounder] in The Hague during trial, and after conviction are moved to one of 15 countries that have agreed to take custody of ICTY defendants. In January this year, Vidoje Blagojevic [ICTY case backgrounder, PDF], former commander of the Bratunac Brigade of the Bosnian Serb Army, was transferred to Norway [press release] to serve the remainder of his 15-year sentence for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive].