BELGRADE, Serbia-A former Yugoslav air force pilot convicted in Italy of shooting down a helicopter in 1992 with five EU officials on board was granted parole in Serbia on Friday, justice officials said.

Maj. Emir Sisic has been serving his 15-year prison term in his native Serbia since he was transferred from Italy in 2006.

A court in the northern city of Novi Sad granted parole to Sisic in accordance with local laws, Serbia's Justice Ministry said in a statement Friday. No other details were immediately available.

Sisic, piloting a Yugoslav air force MiG-21, shot down and killed the entire EU delegation in January 1992 when the officials, four Italians and a Frenchman, flew through an area of then newly independent Croatia, which was bitterly contested between Croat and Serb forces.

Croatia's break from Yugoslavia in 1991 led to four years of war with Yugoslav-backed Serb rebels.

Dodging justice during the 1990s when he lived in Serbia, Sisic was eventually arrested in 2001 during a brief visit to neighboring Hungary.

Hungary extradited him to Italy in 2002 where he was tried and sentenced in 2003 to life in prison, but the punishment was later reduced to 15 years in jail.

Sisic's lawyers claimed that superiors ordered him to fire on the helicopter and that a blinding light prevented him from recognizing the aircraft as an EU helicopter.