Bosnian Muslim war crimes defendant pleads not guilty

SARAJEVO: Former Bosnian Muslim commander Naser Oric (pix) pleaded not guilty Monday to war crimes during the country's 1992-1995 war, media reports said.
Oric, who led Muslim forces in the eastern town of Srebrenica, is accused of the murder of three Serb prisoners-of-war in 1992, which the prosecutor's office has described as a "war crime against prisoners".
He and co-accused Sabahudin Muhic, neither of them held in custody, appeared before the court in the capital Sarajevo to enter their not-guilty pleas, according to Bosnian television news.
Oric, 48, was arrested in June in Switzerland on a warrant issued by Serbia, which also wanted to try him for war crimes against ethnic Serbs in Srebrenica.
But Switzerland decided to extradite him to his home country to face charges there instead.
After arriving in Sarajevo, reports said he was questioned by a prosecutor and released by a judge with restrictions on his movement.
His arrest sparked an outcry among Bosnian Muslim leaders and families of the victims of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces.
In 2006, Oric was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to two years in prison for not doing enough to protect Srebrenica's Serb population during the war.
He was acquitted on appeal. –AFP