Berlin - A former Serb general convicted by the UN war crimes tribunal has arrived in Germany to serve a life sentence, the Justice Ministry announced Friday.

Stanislav Galic, 65, was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in December 2003 for crimes related to the shelling of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

Galic appealed the judgement, but the appeals chamber rejected his arguments and, in November 2006, extended his sentence from 20 years to life imprisonment.

Berlin agreed to allow people convicted by the ICTY to serve their sentences in Germany because the UN did not have sufficient space at its prison in The Hague.

Galic, who arrived on Thursday in the southern German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, where he will serve his sentence, is the third war criminal from the former Yugoslavia accepted by Germany.

The others are Dusko Tadic, who is serving a 20-year sentence for crimes against humanity, and Dragoljub Kunarac, who is serving 28 years for torture, rape and enslavement. (dpa)