A UN war crimes appeals court has ruled that an ex-Yugoslav army officer jailed for crimes at Vukovar in 1991 should serve 17, not five years.

It found the original sentence against Veselin Sljivancanin for torture was inadequate and jailed him for aiding and abetting the murder of prisoners.

Sljivancanin was released in December 2007 after four years in custody, the BBC reported.

He had returned to The Hague for the ruling which also upheld a sentence against his superior, Mile Mrksic.

Mrksic is serving 20 years for aiding and abetting the murder and torture of prisoners, as well as allowing inhumane conditions of detention.

Judges found the army had allowed Serb paramilitaries to kill prisoners of war sheltering at a hospital in Vukovar.

The court found that a Hague trial chamber had erred in September 2007 when it acquitted Sljivancanin of aiding and abetting the murder of 194 people, finding him guilty only of aiding and abetting torture.

The original trial heard that the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) had besieged Vukovar from August to November 1991, during which time some 1 000 of the city's residents were killed and another 5 000 taken prisoner.

In the last days of the siege, several hundred people sought refuge at the city's hospital, hoping to be evacuated in the presence of international observers.

But on 20 November 1991, JNA soldiers stopped guarding the prisoners, allowing Serb Territorial Defence and paramilitary forces to load about 400 on to buses and take them to a farm in nearby Ovcara where at least 194 were beaten and later killed.

After the killings, the bodies of the victims were buried by bulldozer in a mass grave at the same location.

Mrksic was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murders as he had ordered the withdrawal of the JNA soldiers guarding the prisoners.

Mrksic was also found to have failed to act effectively to ensure that the prisoners were properly protected or treated, the trial chamber found.

He has been in the Hague Tribunal's custody since 15 May 2002.

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