Europe's human rights court upholds life term for Bosnian Serb convicted of genocide

Europe's human rights court on Thursday upheld a life term for a man found guilty by a German court of committing acts of genocide during the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia in 1992.

Nicola Jorgic, a German resident of Bosnian Serb origin, was arrested upon his return to Germany in 1995 and convicted of "acting with the intent to commit genocide" on 11 counts, murdering 22 people and other serious crimes against Muslims during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. A Duesseldorf court sentenced him to life in 1997

Jorgic challenged the verdict at the European Court of Human Rights, arguing the German court did not have jurisdiction over the case.

But the Strasbourg court threw out his complaint, saying that the German court was not prohibited under international law from trying the case and that the Germans had "reasonable grounds for establishing their jurisdiction to try the applicant on charges of genocide."