Ex-commander of Croatian World War II camp dies
Dinko Sakic, the last known living commander of a World War II concentration camp, died overnight in a Croatian hospital while serving a 20-year sentence for war crimes, officials said Monday. He was 87.
Sakic — a former chief of Croatia's infamous Jasenovac camp — died in a hospital in Zagreb, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Vesna Dovranic told The Associated Press.
Sakic had heart problems and had been receiving treatment at a prison hospital, but he was recently transferred to a better-equipped hospital when his condition deteriorated, Dovranic said.
Sakic fled Croatia at the end of the war, when Croatia's pro-Nazi regime was crushed. He had lived peacefully in Argentina for decades until 1998, when he was extradited to Croatia for a trial.
In 1999, Zagreb district court sentenced him to 20 years in prison — the maximum penalty at the time — for carrying out or condoning the torture and slayings of inmates while in charge of the Jasenovac camp in 1944.
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Sakic — a former chief of Croatia's infamous Jasenovac camp — died in a hospital in Zagreb, Justice Ministry spokeswoman Vesna Dovranic told The Associated Press.
Sakic had heart problems and had been receiving treatment at a prison hospital, but he was recently transferred to a better-equipped hospital when his condition deteriorated, Dovranic said.
Sakic fled Croatia at the end of the war, when Croatia's pro-Nazi regime was crushed. He had lived peacefully in Argentina for decades until 1998, when he was extradited to Croatia for a trial.
In 1999, Zagreb district court sentenced him to 20 years in prison — the maximum penalty at the time — for carrying out or condoning the torture and slayings of inmates while in charge of the Jasenovac camp in 1944.