Life for Muslim killers in Serb revenge attack inside Yorkshire jail

Indrit Krasniqi, 23, Iliyas Khalid, 24, and Quam Ogumbiyi, 29, entered former general Radislav Krstic’s cell at top-security Wakefield Prison and slashed him with knives or blades in revenge for his role in the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

The Muslim defendants, who are serving life sentences for murder, were cleared of attempted murder by a jury at Leeds Crown Court but convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Mr Justice Henriques said he would have liked to have extended the minimum term each defendant is currently serving, but he said that option was not available to him because of the law.

However, he said the new convictions would affect their release date as it was likely their first application to the Parole Board would fail.

For carrying out the revenge attack, Mr Henriques jailed Krasniqi for life with a specified term of 12 years.

Khalid was jailed for life with a specified term of 10 years while Ogumbiyi, who played a lesser role in the attack, was jailed for life with a specified term of six years.

He told them: “This was a crime of exceptional gravity. Each of you are convicted murderers serving a life sentence of imprisonment.

“You planned an attack upon a defenceless man with an artificial leg, aged 62.

“You planned a revenge attack by way of retribution for war crimes carried out by Radislav Krstic in the 1990s.

“Crimes for the purpose of advancing a religious or racial cause or crimes which are religiously or racially motivated attract significantly higher sentences of imprisonment.

“All three of you are practising Muslims. I have no doubt what you intended was an act of revenge for those war crimes.”

He added: “You had full knowledge of the crimes of Krstic and although that makes it possible to understand your motivation....alas, it does not mitigate it.”

“Each of you must expect having committed such a grave offence in custody that your first application to the Parole Board will fail.

“You and the public must appreciate that you will be adversely affected by the jury’s finding of guilt.”

Krasniqi, an Albanian national, is serving a life sentence of at least 23 years for the 2005 kidnap and murder of 16-year-old Mary-Ann Leneghan in Reading, Berkshire, and the attempted murder of her friend.

Khalid was jailed for life in 2008 and told he must serve a minimum of twenty-eight-and-a-half years for the murder of 23-year-old Stacey Westbury.

He was jailed under his previous name - Christopher Braithwaite - for sexually assaulting and killing Miss Westbury, whose body was found at her home in Fulham, west London, in August 2007.

Ogumbiyi is serving a life sentence for stabbing a man to death with a knife on the doorstep of a flat in Haringey, north London, in 2003. He must serve 12 years before he is eligible for parole.

The three men were convicted of carrying out the attack in Wakefield Prison following a two-week trial.

The jury of seven women and five men heard Krstic suffered a number of injuries on May 7 last year, including one 4.7in (12cm) slash across his neck.

Krstic is a Bosnian Serb national who was serving a 35-year sentence for his involvement as a general-major in the Bosnian Serb Army which killed many Bosnian Muslim men in Srebrenica in 1995.

Krstic was convicted of genocide at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for his involvement in the killings. He was sentenced to 46 years in prison.

His conviction was later reduced on appeal to aiding and abetting genocide and his prison term was reduced to 35 years.

He was transferred to the UK to serve his sentence in 2004.

He is serving part of his sentence in a British jail because the UK has a treaty obligation to take some prisoners from the War Crimes Tribunal.