Bosnian-born man sentenced in Norway on war crimes
Associated Press Worldstream - December 2, 2008 Tuesday 3:54 PM GMT

OSLO Norway - A Norwegian court sentenced a Bosnian-born man to five years in prison Tuesday for crimes committed in 1992 during the Balkan wars in Norway's first war crimes trial in more than 60 years.

The conviction of 42-year-old Mirsad Repak will be appealed because it is a test of a new Norwegian law that took effect this year specifically targeting crimes against humanity, genocide, terrorism.

Repak was accused of abusing Bosnia-Serb prisoners at a Bosnian-Croat detention camp in 1992.

The new law, passed in March, set the maximum penalty for such crimes at 30 years in prison, abolished the statute of limitations and are retroactive to whenever the alleged crime occurred.

The Oslo district court said "he has been sentenced to five years in prison for war crimes in the form of the illegal detention of 11 people," but the conviction and sentence took place under laws that existed in Norway in 1992.

The court did not accept the portion of the new law that would make it retroactive. It acquitted Repak of other "crimes against humanity" that were charged under the new law, saying Norway did not have such legislation when the crimes were committed in 1992 and that "it would be unconstitutional to enforce that retroactively."

The prosecution said it will appeal that interpretation to a higher court. Repak has two weeks to decide whether he also wants to appeal.

The chief judge of the appeals court, Finn Haugen, urged both sides to appeal to the Supreme Court, saying a high court precedent was needed.

"The ruling should end up in the Supreme Court, so it can put its stamp on the interpretation of the law and the length of the sentences. It would be good to have to the Supreme Court's conclusion before more war crimes cases end up on our table," Haugen said.

Repak fled to Norway in 1993 and was granted asylum. He became a Norwegian citizen in 2001. He was arrested in May 2007 on suspicion of committing war crimes.

Norway's last war crimes trial was against Vidkun Quisling and other Norwegian Nazis who collaborated with German occupation forces in World War II. Quisling was convicted and executed in 1945, shortly after the war ended.

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