The appeals chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague on Tuesday affirmed the sentence of life imprisonment for Serbian war crimes suspect Milan Lukic.

But the appeals chamber reduced the sentence for his cousin Sredoje Lukic from 30 to 27 years of imprisonment.

The two were convicted for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war committed during the war in the eastern Bosnian town of Visegrad in 1992 and 1993.

Their crimes include the murder of Muslim civilians, executions, torture and rape.

They lodged their appeals in 2009, saying the ICTY had made "substantial and factual errors."

The appeals chamber, with two judges dissenting, partially granted two grounds of appeal, reversing all Sredoje Lukic's convictions for the beatings of detainees in the Uzamnica Camp. Consequently, his sentence was reduced by three years.

In recent weeks, the ICTY judges ruled the acquittals of former Croatian war crimes suspects Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac and also the acquittal of former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) Ramush Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj. These verdicts raised anger in Serbia. Endi

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