Ex-bosnian Serb general Mladic’s convictions upheld by appeal judges

UN appeal judges have upheld the convictions of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic for genocide and other offences during Bosnia's 199295 war and confirmed his life sentence.

Yesterday’s judgment means the 79-year-old former general who terrorised Bosnia throughout the war will spend the rest of his life in prison.

He is the last major figure from the conflict that ended more than a quarter century ago to face justice.

Presiding Judge Prisca Matimba Nyambe of Zambia said the court dismissed Mladic's appeal "in its entirety" and affirmed his life sentence for his role in the killing of around 8,000 Bosnian Muslim – Bosniak – men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

The massacre, in an enclave supposed to be under UN protection, was the worst atrocity in Europe since the Second World War.

It is not yet clear where Mladic will serve the rest of his sentence.

The five-person appeals panel found Mladic had failed to provide evidence to invalidate the previous convictions against him, although the presiding judge dissented on almost all counts.

However, the Appeals Chamber also dismissed the appeal brought by the prosecution, which had sought a second conviction against Mladic over crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats in some other areas during the war.

The verdict was delayed by technical difficulties, which continued throughout the session.

Mladic had denounced the tribunal during his appeal hearing in August, calling it a child of Western powers. His lawyers had argued he was far away from Srebrenica when the massacre happened.

Mladic joins his former political master, ex-bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, in serving a life sentence for masterminding ethnic bloodshed in the Bosnian war that left more than 100,000 dead and millions homeless.

Karadzic’s initial 40-year sentence for genocide and war crimes was later increased to life in prison in 2019 – the remainder of which he will serve in the UK.

Mladic, once a swaggering military strongman known as the Butcher of Bosnia, commanded troops responsible for atrocities ranging from "ethnic cleansing" campaigns to the siege of Sarajevo and the war's bloody climax in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

Now, he is a frail elderly man whose ill health delayed this final judgment.

His toxic legacy continues to divide Bosnia and his dark shadow has spread far beyond the Balkans. To Serbs in Bosnia, he is a war hero who fought to protect his people.

To Bosniaks, mostly Muslims, he will always be a villain responsible for their terrible wartime suffering and losses.

Mladic, as well as Karadzic, have been revered by Serb and even foreign far-right supporters for their bloody wartime campaigns against Bosniaks.

An Australian who shot dead dozens of Muslim worshippers in a Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019 was believed to be inspired by the Bosnian Serb leaders, as was Anders Breivik, the Norwegian white supremacist who shot dead 77 people in Norway in 2011