The Hague war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia will publish its ruling on the request by former Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) commander Veselin Sljivancanin asking the tribunal's appeals chamber to revise the verdict sentencing him to 17 years' imprisonment for aiding and abetting in the killing of 194 Croatian prisoners on the Ovacara farm outside Vukovar in late November 1991.
In 2007 the Hague tribunal sentenced Sljivancanin to five years in prison and he was immediately released because he had served most of the sentence, but in May 2009 the tribunal's appeals chamber granted the prosecution's appeal and increased his sentence from five to 17 years in prison.
Sljivancanin's defence in October that year asked the appeals chamber to revise his verdict to result in a sentence of not more than six years in prison.
The defence counsel for the former chief of security of the JNA Operational Group South requested that the appeals chamber re-examine the verdict, and the appeals chamber granted the motion, based on a statement by witness Miodrag Panic which the defence says exculpates Sljivancanin from involvement in the killing of 194 Croatian prisoners at Ovcara.
Sljivancanin is one of the so-called Vukovar Three who stood trial at the Hague tribunal for the Ovcara atrocity.
The other two accused are the commander of the JNA Operational Group South, Mile Mrksic, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Captain Miroslav Radic, who was acquitted of the charges.
