Bosnian Serbs Convicted of Burning Muslims Alive

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:24 a.m. ET

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A U.N. war crimes court convicted two Bosnian Serb cousins Monday for a ''callous'' 1992 killing spree that included locking scores of Muslims in two houses and burning them alive.

Yugoslav war crimes tribunal judge Patrick Robinson said burning at least 119 Muslims to death in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad ''exemplified the worst acts of inhumanity that one person may inflict on others.''

He sentenced Milan Lukic to life in prison and Sredoje Lukic to 30 years.

Robinson said Milan Lukic was the ringleader in both incidents, helping herd victims into the houses, setting the fires and shooting those who tried to flee the flames. The judgment said his cousin Sredoje Lukic aided and abetted in one of the blazes

Witnesses ''vividly remembered the terrible screams of the people in the house,'' Robinson said, adding that Milan Lukic used the butt of his rifle to herd people into the house, and said, ''come on, let's get as many people inside as possible.''

Milan Lukic shook his head but looked unmoved as Robinson pronounced sentence. Sredoje Lukic leaned back in his chair, his face blank.

Even Robinson, a veteran judge at the tribunal that has been prosecuting Balkan war crimes for 15 years, sounded stunned by the Visegrad atrocities.

''The perpetration by Milan Lukic and Sredoje Lukic of crimes in this case is characterized by a callous and vicious disregard for human life,'' he said.

''In the all-too-long, sad and wretched history of man's inhumanity to man, the Pionirska street and Bikavac fires must rank high,'' the judge added.

Prosecutors seeking to clear the court's docket as quickly as possible had asked for the Visegrad case to be handed to a Bosnian court because the cousins were relatively low-ranking suspects. But tribunal judges refused, saying the allegations were so serious they should be handled in The Hague.

Milan Lukic also was convicted of murdering 12 other Muslims, shooting them in the back on the banks of the Drina River, which runs through Visegrad, so the current would sweep away their bodies. One of the victims was murdered in front of his wife and child.

Robinson said Milan Lukic ''ignored the victims pleas for their lives,'' as he and other Serb paramilitaries executed them with a single shot in the back before firing into the bodies of any men they believed were still alive.

Milan Lukic led a paramilitary group known as both the ''White Eagles'' and the ''Avengers,'' which terrorized Muslims in Visegrad. His cousin Sredoje was a local policeman and a member of the group.

Both men also were convicted of cruelty for visiting a detention center to savagely beat Muslim inmates.

German city honors Egyptian woman slain in court

German city honors Egyptian woman slain in court

By JOERG ABERGER (AP) – Jul 11, 2009

DRESDEN, Germany (AP) — Hundreds of people carrying white roses gathered Saturday on the steps of Dresden's city hall in honor of an Egyptian woman who was fatally stabbed by a defendant in a German courtroom.

Marwa al-Sherbini, a pregnant 31-year-old pharmacist, was stabbed 18 times in a court where she was to have testified against a young Russian-born German. She had filed a complaint against him in 2008 accusing him of insulting her with racial slurs.

The public memorial, organized by local civil rights groups, drew more than 1,000 people, including the Egyptian ambassador and officials from the state of Saxony, where the July 1 stabbing took place.

Mourners brought single white roses that they laid beneath large photos of the dead woman.

Al-Sherbini was stabbed as her 3-year-old son looked on. Her husband was injured when he intervened to protect her and he remains hospitalized.

The attacker, identified only as Alex W., 28, remains in detention pending the outcome of an investigation on suspicion of murder. Charging a suspect typically takes months in Germany.

Al-Sherbini had already testified once against the man in court in November 2008, after which he was fined for calling her a "terrorist" and an "Islamist at a playground.

He had returned to court on July 1 to challenge the fine. Because the man was not considered a threat and had not been held in detention before the court session, there was no security surrounding the trial.

Many German courts, including that in Dresden, have no security checks at their entrance.

"This crime by a lone wolf destroyed a family's hopes within minutes," said Egyptian Ambassador Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy. "We expect the attacker to be swiftly sentenced and her family to receive justice."

Egyptians have expressed outrage at the attack, saying the German response has been too little, too late and serves as an example of racism and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her condolences to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during the Group of Eight summit in Italy on Thursday and sent her top official for immigration affairs to offer sympathy to al-Sherbini's husband, but has not publicly condemned the slaying.

Ramzy said he was convinced "that this act does not reflect the reality of the German people. The Germans have an open mind, including to people of other faiths," he said.

One of those at the memorial was Walerius Steinhauer who, like the attacker, was born in Russia of German forefathers and was allowed to emigrate after the collapse of communism in 1989.

"We Russian-Germans do not understand this young man. All of us are asking ourselves how could a Russian-German (immigrant) become a right-wing extremist?"

Others expressed similar outrage.

Tobias Weidlich, 29, brought his two young daughters to the memorial.

"The brutality and horror of this crime is unbelievable," he said.

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