Almost 26 years after the genocide in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former has handed down a final verdict in the appeal. Again, Mladic is convicted of being one of the main characters behind.
More than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the Srebrenica genocide, the worst massacre on European soil since World War II.
In the first trial against him in 2017, Mladic was sentenced to life in prison for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Mladic appealed the verdict, which is now upheld.
The appeal case started at the end of August 2020. It was expected that the judges in the appeal case would also give him life. Mladic became known as the “butcher in the Balkans” during the Bosnian war from 1992 to 1995.
Srebrenica-massacre
More than 100,000 people were killed in the conflict, and several million became homeless.
Mladic is responsible for a number of brutal attacks, including the siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Between 11 and 19 July, the Muslim boys and men were systematically slaughtered by the Bosnian Serb forces under Mladic’s command, and the remains were dumped in mass graves.
More than 1,000 of the victims have still not been accounted for. At the 25th anniversary celebrations last year, eight of the victims were finally buried.
Splitter Bosnia
Widows and mothers of Srebrenica victims gathered outside the court in the Dutch city of The Hague in the hours before the verdict fell on Tuesday
The verdict was handed down by the panel of five judges on Tuesday. The panel was chaired by Zambian judge Prisca Matimba Nyambe. The appeal was rejected in its entirety and the life sentence upheld, Nyambe stated during the sentencing.
An appeal from the prosecutor was also rejected. The prosecutor had appealed Mladic’s acquittal on another point regarding genocide related to ethnic cleansing early in the war.
Mladic’s legacy still divides Bosnia. Although many Bosniaks, mostly Muslims, consider him a war criminal, many Bosnian Serbs still see him as a hero.
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