[1] The crimes of which Lukić was convicted include murder, torture, assault, looting, destruction of property and the killing of at least 132 identified men, women and children.

Soon after, local Serbs, police and paramilitaries began one of the most notorious campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the conflict, designed to permanently rid the town of its Bosniak population.

[1] Many of the Bosniaks who were not immediately killed were detained at various locations in the town, as well as the former JNA military barracks at Uzamnica (5 kilometres outside of Višegrad), the Vilina Vlas Hotel and other detention sites in the area.

Those detained at Uzamnica were subjected to inhumane conditions, including regular beatings, torture by Bosnian Serbs and strenuous forced labour.

Lukić was responsible for organising a group of local paramilitaries referred to variously as the White Eagles, the Avengers or the Wolves, with ties to the Višegrad police and Serb military units.

The group committed numerous crimes in the Višegrad municipality including murder, rape, torture, beatings, looting and destruction of property, and played a prominent role in the ethnic cleansing of the town and surrounding area of its Bosniak inhabitants.

"[3] On the morning of 22 October 1992, a bus travelling from Priboj, Sandžak, Serbia to Rudo, Bosnia, was stopped in the Bosnian village of Mioče by four members of the Osvetnici (Avengers) paramilitary unit under the command of Milan Lukić.

[11] Shortly after the abduction, Lukić was stopped by Serbian police when driving through Sjeverin and found in possession of weapons and forging personal documents.

[citation needed] On 27 February 1993 members of the Serbian "Avengers" ("Osvetnici") military unit, commanded by Milan Lukić, abducted a group of 19 non-Serb citizens of the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro (18 Bosniaks and one Croat) from the Belgrade-Bar train at Štrpci station near Priboj.

The abductees were robbed and physically abused, then tortured and killed in the garage of a burned-out house in the village of Visegradska banja, near Višegrad, close to the Drina river.

[13] At the trial of Nebojša Ranisavljević, the only suspect convicted for the crime, Luka Dragicević, Commander of the Višegrad brigade of the Republika Srpska Army (RSA), admitted the "Avengers" unit were part of these armed forces.

After a visit to the area by Radmilo Bogdanović, president of the Defense and Security Committee of the Yugoslav Parliament's Chamber of Citizens, an influential figure in Serbian police circles, Lukić and Dragicević were released from custody on grounds that lacked transparency.

In October 2002, after the fall of Milošević, the Office of the Public Prosecutor in Belgrade issued indictments against Lukić, Dragutin Dragićević, Oliver Krsmanović, Đorđe Šević, and five other persons on charges relating to the Sjeverin massacre.

In 2003 an ICTY official confirmed that Lukic had been discussing the possibility of surrender for several years and contacts with The Hague intensified as the relationship with Karadžić deteriorated.

In April 2005, in a letter e-mailed to Bosnian and Serbian media outlets apparently written by Lukić, the author called for his superiors, the top police, military and political leaders from Višegrad, to be held to account for crimes committed under their command.

A request by the Prosecution to have Lukić's case referred to the national authorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina was ultimately denied by the Appeals Chamber of the ICTY.

His cousin Sredoje Lukić was found guilty of crimes including aiding and abetting the murders at Pionirska Street and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment.

In 1996, The Guardian published extracts from the confession made by a Serb soldier, Mitar Obradović, alleging that Lukić had raped many women in Višegrad and encouraged his troops to do the same.

[20] The ICTY's initial joint indictment against Milan and Sredoje Lukić and Mitar Vasiljević stated that Vilina Vlas had been used to incarcerate prisoners who were tortured, beaten up and sexually abused, though none of the original 20 counts specifically mentioned rape.

[20] Bakira Hasečić challenged the Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte's assertion that the prosecution did not have evidence for such charges when it drew up the indictment as no witnesses would come forward, saying she and other women made statements to officials that were available to Hague investigators.

[20] Del Ponte's special advisor and spokesperson Anton Nikiforov acknowledged there was information about rapes that had taken place in Višegrad but claimed tribunal prosecutors had been "unable to reach the witnesses" before the indictments were completed.

The proposed new indictment charged the cousins with involvement, individually or together with others, in planning and/or the abetting of rape, keeping in slavery and torture of persons in detention centres and other locations in Višegrad town and its vicinity.

[21] In March 2015, Lukić filed a "human rights" complaint requesting to be transferred to Scheveningen detention unit then relocate to a prison in Germany, claiming "psychological pain" from isolation due to his inability to speak Estonian.

The Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade urged that the "institutions and citizens of the Republic of Serbia to condemn publicly the use of the Parish House of the Cathedral of Saint Sava in Belgrade for the launch of a book by the convicted war criminal Milan Lukić during which priests of the Serbian Orthodox Church took part in the eulogisation of a war criminal responsible for some of the most terrible crimes against humanity."