Several thousand people turned out in Republika Srpska to welcome home Momcilo Krajisnik, a key wartime political leader of the Bosnian Serbs who was convicted of war crimes.

Well-wishers waved flags and sang Serbian nationalist songs as Krajisnik, 68, returned on the evening of August 30 to Pale, near Sarajevo.

Krajisnik, who was arrested in 2000, was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on charges of persecuting and forcibly expelling non-Serbs, and crimes against humanity, during the 1992-95 war.

A 27-year prison sentence was reduced on appeal, and he was granted early release from a British prison.

Krajisnik was a close ally of the Bosnian Serb wartime political leader Radovan Karadzic, who is currently on trial for genocide and other crimes.

Based on reporting by AP and AFP