Dane Lukajic, a former Bosnian Serb intelligence officer charged with war crimes, was convicted by Zagreb County Court on Thursday of torture of prisoners of war at the Manjaca camp and was given six years in prison, pending appeal.

The Manjaca camp was set up by Serb forces on Mount Manjaca near the city of Banja Luka in northern Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war from 1992 to 1995.

Handing down the verdict, Judge Drazen Kevric said that although he had been en educated officer of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), who knew the rules of the Geneva Conventions, Lukajic intentionally acted against those rules.

The crimes he was found guilty of were committed between mid-June and 16 September 1992 during the war in the country. Under the indictment, Lukajic ordered his subordinates to beat Croat POWs during or after interrogations; five Croat prisoners were severely beaten on his orders and he personally beat and tortured one of them.

Lukajic, 69, was arrested in Croatia on 30 June 2018 while on his way to a memorial ceremony for victims of the Second World War.

The defence team announced an appeal against the verdict.