Biljana Plavšić, a former member of the wartime and political leadership of Republika Srpska, has died in Belgrade at the age of 96, N1 reports. Plavšić was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague for persecution on political, racial, and religious grounds.
In 2003, Plavšić pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. According to the verdict, she participated in the persecution of Bosniak Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serb populations in 37 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On June 26, 2003, Plavšić was transferred from The Hague to Sweden, where she served her sentence in the "Hinseberg" prison. In October 2009, she was released in Belgrade after serving two-thirds of her sentence.
Before entering politics, Plavšić was a professor and dean at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics in Sarajevo. In the 1990 elections, she was elected a member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
She spent the last years of her life in Belgrade, away from political life. Plavšić's funeral is expected to be held in Banja Luka.
