Croatia: Captain Dragan sentenced to 15 years

Dragan Vasiljkovic, aka Kapetan (Captain) Dragan, was on Tuesday sentenced to 15 years in prison by a Croatian court.

The court in the town of Split found him guilty on charges of war crimes committed against Croat soldiers and civilians in the 1990s.

Vasiljkovic was found guilty on two counts of the indictment against him - abuse of prisoners in the Knin Fortress, and attack on a police station in the town of Glina.

Last week, during the closing statement of his defense, Vasiljkovic rejected as false all allegations from the indictment. "The crimes referred to in the indictment have neither been committed by me, nor have they happened," he said.

He described the entire legal process against him as "obsessive fascist persecution" - while at the beginning of the trial last year, he said he saw himself as a defender of his homeland, (former) Yugoslavia, rather...