BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) Serbia has awarded a top state medal to a former French army officer convicted in his country of treason for alerting Serbs to possible NATO targets ahead of the 1999 bombing of the Balkan state.
President Tomislav Nikolic on Thursday former decorated Army Maj. Pierre Bunel with the "Milos Obilic" medal, awarded for exceptional bravery. Bunel was not there for the occasion.
Bunel, former chief of staff for the French delegation at NATO headquarters in Brussels, was sentenced to five years in jail in France in 2001 for treason.
Milos Obilic was a Serbian knight who killed the Ottoman leader, Sultan Murad I, in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389.
