TORONTO, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- A Canadian appeals court has upheld the conviction of a Serbian-Canadian man for taking three U.N. peacekeepers hostage in Bosnia in 1995.
The three judges of the Ontario Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in Toronto against every claim by Nicholas Ribic that he was merely following orders on May 26, 1995, when three unarmed U.N. peacekeepers at a Serbian ammunition depot were taken hostage and used as human shields in the town of Pale, near Sarajevo.
The peacekeepers were held for three weeks as part of a Bosnian Serb means to stop NATO airstrikes against ammunition depots, the Globe and Mail reported.
"There was no evidence in this case of any order concerning the hostage-taking that the appellant was obliged to follow," the ruling said. It also denied credibility to claims Ribic was acting in self defense or that he had a right to protect Serbian property from NATO, the newspaper said.
Ribic later fled to Germany but was extradited to Canada in 1999 and convicted of the hostage-taking in 2005.
Canada's Criminal Code has a provision that allows for prosecution of citizens for crimes committed abroad.
