Former Bosnian Serb Army chief Ratko Mladic returned to the United Nation’s (UN) International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals at The Hague on Tuesday to appeal his 2017 conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian War. The mechanism deals with cases leftover from now-defunct tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
Dubbed the ‘Butcher of Bosnia’, Mladic, 78, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2017, after he was found guilty of overseeing the systematic slaughter of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 and engaging in ethnic cleansing during the 43-month siege of Sarajevo. The Srebrenica massacre is regarded as one of the worst atrocities in Europe since the Holocaust. He took refuge in Serbia for 16 years before finally being arrested in 2011.
As Tuesday’s session began, defense lawyers argued that Mladic was at risk of a “miscarriage of justice” as he was not mentally fit to participate in the appeal hearing. They said that proceedings should not go ahead until a medical team had reviewed his capacity to take part.
The hearing also appeared to be affected by technical issues, since some judges chose to participate remotely via video link. At one point, Mladic complained that he had trouble following the hearing through headphones, which prompted his lawyer Dragan Ivetic to emphasize that he could not communicate with his client “or be assured that he is able to meaningfully follow proceedings”. The defense has claimed that conducting such critical hearings inhibited by COVID-19 restrictions risks jeopardizing Mladic’s right to a fair trial. The hearing has already been delayed several times since March due to Mladic needing colon surgery first, and then because of the pandemic.
Mladic has appealed against both his conviction and the sentence. Ivetic and other defense lawyers have argued that the original judgement was “replete with errors”, since it linked Mladic to crimes committed in 1991, which was before he was in the chain of command.
However, the prosecution has appealed against his acquittal on wider genocide charges. “Ratko Mladic is not a hero, he is a war criminal. He used his military power to deliberately target the civilian population and to destroy the lives of civilian communities as well. He was sentenced properly after a fair trial,” said prosecutor Laurel Baig.
Mladic will be allowed to address the court for ten minutes on Wednesday.
‘Butcher of Bosnia’ Ratko Mladic Appeals Genocide Conviction
The former Bosnian Serb Army chief was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2017.
August 26, 2020
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES