Former Yugoslav Army general and Hague convict Nebojša Pavković has died at the age of 79 in Belgrade, Radio Television of Serbia reports.
Pavkovic, as commander of the Third Army of the Yugoslav Army, was sentenced by the Hague Tribunal to 22 years in prison for war crimes against Albanians in Kosovo in 1999.
He served his sentence in a prison in Finland.
At the request of the Serbian Government, Pavković was released early on September 28, due to his poor health.
He then continued his treatment at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade.
From 2000 to 2002, Pavković served as Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army.
In 1999, during the NATO bombing of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he was commander of the Third Army of the Yugoslav Army.
In 2009, he was found guilty in The Hague of all charges against him: expulsions, forced displacements, murders and persecutions of Albanian civilians from Kosovo in the first half of 1999.
The first instance decision was confirmed in 2014.
In May 2022, the International Mechanism in The Hague rejected Pavković's request for early release, due to the "great gravity of his crimes" and "lack of rehabilitation."
The indictment against him and other generals was filed in late 2003, and in 2005 he was extradited to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
Also convicted along with him were the former Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army, Dragoljub Ojdanić, the former commander of the Pristina Corps, Vladimir Lazarević, the police general, Sreten Lukić, and the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Nikola Šainović.
Pavkovic and Lukic were sentenced to 22 years in prison each, while Ojdanic and Lukic were sentenced to 15 years each. /REL
