Teesha –
United Nations War Crimes Judge on June 8 upheld the genocide conviction and life sentence against former Bosnian Serb Military Chief Commander Ratko Mladic, confirming his central role in Europe’s worst atrocities since World War Two.
Mladic led Bosnian Serb forces during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 War. In 2017 he was convicted on the charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes including terrorising the civilian population of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo during a 43-month siege.
Nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys were taken into prison in the Eastern Town of Srebrenica in 1995.
Chief Tribunal Prosecutor Serge Brammertz said after the verdict, “His name should be consigned to the list of history’s most depraved and barbarous figures.”
The presiding Judge Prisca Nyambe dismissed Mladic’s appeal in its entirety and affirmed the life imprisonment imposed on Mladic by the Trial Chamber.
The judgment brings to an end the 25 years of the trials at the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia is one of the predecessors of the International Criminal Court.
The Whitehouse praised the work of the UN saying that “This historic judgment shows that those who commit horrific crimes will be held accountable. It also reinforces our shared resolve to prevent future atrocities from occurring anywhere in the world.”
The Tribunal observed that Mladic’s role was eminent in the Srebrenica slaughter and hence dismissed the prosecution’s plea of acquittal or retrial.