Former Yugoslav army chief Nebojsa Pavkovic, convicted of war crimes by a UN court, died on Monday less than a month after being granted an early release, the Serbian presidency said.
Pavkovic was sentenced by The Hague-based UN tribunal in 2009 to 22 years in prison for crimes against ethnic Albanians during the 1990s Kosovo war.
The verdict was confirmed in 2014 and he had been serving his sentence in Finland.
Pavkovic, 79, arrived back in Belgrade in late September, after being released early on health grounds.
According to local media, he had been taken to a military hospital.
“He dedicated his life to serving the country and the army, and his memory will be cherished by those who shared with him both difficult and proud days,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said in a letter of condolences.
Pavkovic surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2005, which had been seeking him for his role as commander of the Yugoslav Third Army in Kosovo.
In May 2022, the court rejected a request for an earlier release, citing the “gravity of his crimes and the lack of rehabilitation”.
Pavkovic was a close associate of nationalist strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who died in 2006 during his own war crimes trial.
Milosevic and the Serbian authorities have long maintained they were legitimately fighting the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which they branded a terrorist group.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but Belgrade still refuses to recognise the move.
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