December 19, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 14, 1423

THE HAGUE, Dec 18: UN prosecutors called on Wednesday for 15-25 years in jail for Bosnian Serb “Iron Lady” Biljana Plavsic, which lawyers for the only woman to confess to war crimes at The Hague said was in practice a life sentence.

Closing a pre-sentencing hearing for the former Bosnian Serb president, who has admitted crimes against humanity, prosecutors stressed the horrors wreaked on non-Serbs in the 1992-5 Bosnian war but said Plavsic’s guilty plea was a mitigating factor.

“Absent the guilty plea we would have requested imprisonment for the rest of her life,” Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said. “I ask that the accused Mrs Plavsic be convicted by the Chamber to a period ranging from 15 to 25 years imprisonment.”

Plavsic, 72, gave an unprecedented courtroom “mea culpa” on Tuesday by admitting responsibility for atrocities against Muslims and Croats, though she stopped short of apologizing.

“Anyone who heard what she said yesterday cannot for a minute believe she is attempting to avoid responsibility,” defence lawyer Robert Pavich said in closing remarks to the three-day hearing at the Hague war crimes tribunal. Pavich said 15 to 25 years could “only be described as a life sentence” and recommended she serve 8 years at most. Plavsic initially pleaded innocent to numerous counts of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.—Reuters