THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The U.N. war crimes court sentenced a former Bosnian Serb police chief to 10 years in prison on Tuesday, saying he made his punishment far less severe by pleading guilty and testifying against other war crimes suspects.The court said Stevan Todorovic, convicted earlier this year of crimes against humanity, had abused his authority as police chief of Bosanski Samac in northern Bosnia in 1992, taking part in ``offenses which he should have been working to prevent or punish.'' (Read photo caption below).
In a plea bargain last December, Todorovic pleaded guilty to a single charge of persecution on political, racial and religious grounds - what commonly became known as ``ethnic cleansing'' - while the prosecution withdrew 26 counts of murder, torture and sexual abuse.
As part of the plea bargain, Todorovic has testified against four other defendants who appeared on the same indictment. The tribunal said the ``quantity and quality of the information'' he provided was valuable to the prosecution and worthy of consideration in his sentencing.
The court said Todorovic would have received a ``much longer'' sentence if he hadn't entered a guilty plea and expressed remorse. At a sentence hearing three months ago, Todorovic asked the court to give him a chance to heal the ethnic wounds in his homeland.
Under the plea bargain, the prosecution had requested a 12-year sentence, arguing a shorter term would be ``inappropriate'' for the gravity of the crime. Todorovic's lawyers sought a five-year sentence, the minimum possible under the deal.
Todorovic was accused of participating in the torture, beatings and sexual abuse of Muslims and Croats. The indictment included a charge that he beat one man to death.
Also as part of the plea deal, Todorovic agreed to drop allegations that he was arrested illegally by NATO-led forces. He claimed he had been abducted in September 1998 in Serbia by a secret commando group that handed him over to peacekeeping force in Bosnia.
An executive in a bamboo furniture factory, Todorovic was appointed police chief in Bosanski Samac in April 1992, shortly after Bosnian Serbs seized control of the strategically located district.
Of 17,000 Croat and Muslim inhabitants of Bosanski Samac - about half the district's population - fewer than 300 were left at the end of the war in 1995.
Todorovic was only the third war crimes suspect to plead guilty since the tribunal was formed in 1993 to pursue suspected war criminals from the former Yugoslavia.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Former Bosnian Serb police chief Stevan Todorovic waits for his sentencing at the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague Tuesday, July 31, 2001. The U.N. war crimes court sentenced Todorovic to 10 years in prison on Tuesday, saying he made his punishment far less severe by pleading guilty and testifying against other war crimes suspects.(AP Photo/ Paul Vreeker, Pool)