SARAJEVO, November 20 (RAPSI) - The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has ordered the release of ten people who were convicted of 1990s war crimes as their rights under the European Convention were violated, according to a statement on the court's website.

On October 22, the Constitutional Court ruled that the rights of the appellants had been violated. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina is now to deliver new verdicts based on the 1976 Criminal Code of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was in force at the time the crimes were committed, rather than on the 2003 Bosnian Code, which the judges relied upon to deliver an initial judgment.

The majority of those convicted are Bosnian Serbs who served sentences for the genocide of Muslims during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.

The verdicts have been reviewed following a ruling of the European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) in the case of Maktouf and Damjanovic v. Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ECHR earlier found that Article 7 (No punishment without law) of the European Convention on Human Rights had been breached in their respect, and ruled that the 2003 Criminal Code is not applicable to the case.

In 1992, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared their secession from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was followed by a three-year war between the Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats. Experts estimate some 100,000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the war, hundreds of people, mostly Bosnian Serbs, were tried for war crimes.