Former RS President Biljana Plavsic has died

Photo: POOL / AFP / Profimedia

The former president of the Serb Republic (RS, Serb entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, BiH), Biljana Plavsic, died this morning in Belgrade at the age of 96, the Srna agency is reporting, citing a source close to the family. The funeral should be held in Banja Luka, RS.

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Plavsic was a Serb politician, university professor and doctor of biological sciences, a deputy in the RS Assembly and a Serb member of the Presidency of the former Socialist Republic of BiH.

She was the first woman to head a republic in the history of the Serb people. She was convicted of war crimes before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

In 2001 Plavsic voluntarily surrendered to the ICTY.

She was the first Serb politician to plead guilty (on the charge of persecution on national and religious grounds, a crime against humanity), and the prosecution in turn withdrew the other charges.

On February 27, 2003, Plavsic was sentenced to 11 years in prison and sent to serve her sentence in Sweden, but was released in October 2009 after serving two thirds of her sentence.

(Telegraf.rs)