Bosnian Serb commander’s lawyers to appeal life term for war atrocities

LAWYERS for former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic say they will appeal a life sentence handed down by a United Nations special court for genocide and other atrocities.

Mladic (75) was found guilty by the UN’s Yugoslav war crimes tribunal of leading forces responsible for crimes including the worst atrocities of Bosnia’s 19921995 war.

They include the three-year siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica, which was Europe’s worst mass killing since the Second World War.

“The crimes committed rank among the most heinous known to humankind,” presiding judge Alphons Orie said when reading out the court’s judgment. Outburst: Ratko Mladic loses his cool in the Hague yesterday

Mladic’s lawyers said they planned to appeal.

The convictions were hailed as a victory for international justice by the court’s prosecutor and rights groups.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein called Mladic “the epitome of evil” and described the prosecution as “the epitome of what international justice is all about”.

The verdict, he added, should serve as a warning to other perpetrators of atrocities “that they will not escape justice, no matter how powerful they may be nor how long it may take. They will be held accountable”.

A three-judge panel at the court, formally known as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, convicted Mladic of 10 out of 11 counts in a dramatic climax to a groundbreaking effort to seek justice for the wars in the former multi-ethnic federation.

Presiding judge Orie read key parts of the judgment after ordering Mladic out of the courtroom for the final verdict over an angry outburst.

Survivors known as the Mothers of Srebrenica clapped when the convictions were read out.

Mladic’s son Darko dismissed the convictions, saying: “The court was totally biased from the start.”

Mladic’s son said judges obstructed defence lawyers in presenting evidence exculpating his father.

“This judgment is wrong, it does not achieve anything ... and will be an obstacle to future normal life in the region,” he said.

Bosnians and Serbs watched from near and far as the long-awaited climax approached.

Yesterday’s judgment marks the end of the final trial at the tribunal, which was set up in 1993, while fierce fighting was still raging in Bosnia. The court will close its doors by the end of the year.

Midway through the hearing Mladic’s lawyer, Dragan Ivetic, asked for a delay because the general was suffering high blood pressure.

The judge refused, and Mladic burst out with criticism and was manhandled out of the room by guards to watch the rest of the hearing via a videolink.

Judge Orie said the court confirmed that “genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and the inhuman act of forcible transfer were committed in or around Srebrenica” in 1995.

Previous judgments have said it was genocide. However, Judge Orie said the court is not convinced of genocidal intent in six other municipalities, in line with previous judgments.

Mr Brammertz said he would study the lengthy judgment before deciding whether to appeal the single acquittal.

The conflict in the former Yugoslavia erupted after the country’s break-up in the early 1990s, with the worst crimes taking place in Bosnia. More than 100,000 people died and millions lost their homes before a peace agreement was signed in 1995.

Mladic went into hiding before his arrest in Serbia in 2011.