A decision rendered by the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg by no means represents a revision of war-crimes verdicts pronounced by the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The European rights court ruled that Abduladhim Maktouf and Goran Damjanovic received higher sentences because a new Bosnian criminal code was used - a decision that could see dozens of verdicts overturned.
Two convicted war criminals have asked the European Court of Human Rights to confirm that the retroactive use of the Bosnian Criminal Code in their trials violated their human rights.
During 2006 Bosnias war crimes chamber confirmed 19 indictments and passed nine verdicts handing out 130 years and four months of prison time in total.
After the appearance of a defence witness in the case of Abduldahim Maktouf pointed to contradictory facts, the Appeal Council decided to bring key prosecution and defence witnesses face to face
Witness claims Abduldahim Maktouf could not have been a member of the Al Mujaheed unit during the Bosnian war because he was involved in trade, a profession forbidden by Islamic law.