The International War Crimes tribunal in The Hague has sentenced Dragan Nikolic to 23 years in prison for human rights offences committed during the Bosnian war. Nikolic was the former Bosnian Serb commander of the Susica detention camp in Eastern Bosnia where, in 1992, he murdered and tortured Muslim prisoners with axe handles and metal pipes, and allowed guards and soldiers to rape and sexually assault women prisoners. In September he reversed an earlier not guilty plea made three years previously and admitted his guilt to charges of persecution, murder, and torture, in exchange for prosecutors calling for a 16-year sentence. However, the presiding judge in his conclusion said this did not reflect the severity of the crimes. Around 8,000 prisoners crammed the overcrowded camp where atrocities were committed on a daily basis, with Nikolic, in the words of the judge, "deriving enjoyment from his criminal conduct...acts that were not isolated but expressions of sadism". **PHOTO CAPTION*** Dragan Nikolic, 46, a Bosnian Serb prison camp commander who admitted allowing his Muslim prisoners to be raped, tortured and murdered, enters the court room at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. (AFP/POOL/Peter DeJong)