The Hague: opening of the appeal trial of Ratko Mladic, the "butcher of the Balkans"

Ratko Mladic, screaming at the announcement of the verdict at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, November 22, 2017. ICTY / Handout via REUTERS

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After being postponed twice, the appeal trial of the man nicknamed "the butcher of the Balkans" is being held Tuesday and Wednesday in The Hague. Ratko Mladic, the former Commander of the Main Staff of the Army of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia, was sentenced in 2017 to life imprisonment for his role in the war in Bosnia.

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With our correspondent in Brussels, Joana Hostein

After 5 years of trial, Ratko Mladic was convicted of ten counts: crime against humanity for the siege and the bombing of Sarajevo which left some 10,000 dead, crime against humanity for the politics of ethnic cleansing committed in towns and villages of Bosnia against Muslims, genocide for the Srebrenica massacre - in July 1995, some 8,000 men and boys were massacred - and war crimes for taking military personnel hostage. United Nations to prevent all NATO air strikes.

►Also read  : Srebrenica: 25 years after the genocide, commemorations reduced due to the pandemic

The prosecution and defense appealed. Ratko Mladic's lawyers denounce "  fundamental errors  " in the judgment , including the misidentification of his position within the Bosnian Serb leadership.

The prosecution urges the court to find Mladic guilty of a second charge of genocide for acts committed in six municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.

We will have to wait at least nine months to know the verdict.

The Bosnian War (1992 - 1995) left some 100,000 dead and 2.2 million displaced.

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  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • International justice
  • Kosovo
  • Ratko Mladic
  • Serbia

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