Bosnia Cuts Jail Term for ‘Monster of Grbavica’

The appeals chamber of the Bosnian state court on Wednesday acquitted former paramilitary fighter Vlahovic of one of the 60 counts in his indictment and cut his jail term by three years.

Vlahovic, alias ‘Batko’, was convicted of killing around 35 people, raping 11 women, detaining people and robbing them in the Grbavica, Vraca and Kovacici districts of the capital between May and July 1992.

His original sentence in March last year was the longest ever handed down to a war criminal by a Bosnian court.

“The acts were committed in a brutal manner and accompanied by cold and offensive behaviour, which is why he is known among victims as the ‘Monster of Grbavica’,” trial chamber president Zoran Bozic said when Vlahovic was convicted.

“The defendant had a characteristic model of behaviour, which was evident through his cold-bloodedness and heinousness, and he committed the crimes in the most horrific manner,” Bozic said.

Montenegro-born Vlahovic was arrested in Spain in March 2010 by police investigating a criminal gang, after previously escaping from a Montenegrin prison where he had been serving a sentence for robbery.