Convicted of war crimes, former Yugoslav general Nebojša Pavković has died at the age of 79, local media reported, quoted by BTA.
Pavković, former commander of the Third Army of the Yugoslav Army, was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to 22 years in prison for crimes against Albanians in Kosovo in 1999, but on September 28 he returned to Serbia from prison in Finland at the request of the Serbian government.
The request was to be released early “for health reasons“.
Upon his arrival in the Serbian capital Belgrade, Gen. Pavković was admitted to the Military Medical Center for treatment.
In 2009, Pavković was found guilty on all charges and convicted of deportations, forcible transfers, murders and persecutions of Kosovo Albanian civilians in the first half of 1999.
In late 2003, he and other generals were indicted by the Hague Tribunal, and in 2005 he was extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
In mid-August, Pavković's lawyer filed an urgent request for early release, citing his deteriorating health as the reason.
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals rejected Pavković's request for early release in May 2022 due to the “great gravity of his crimes and the lack of rehabilitation“.