Appeal in genocide proceedings against Ratko Mladic

Next Tuesday, August 25, the appeal proceedings of Ratko Mladic are to begin in The Hague. In 2017, the commander-in-chief of the Bosnian Serbs had been sentenced to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war. The hearings had already been postponed three times. "The defense of the Butcher of Bosnia had obviously tried to delay the proceedings, speculating that the 77-year-old might not live to see the final sentence," stated Jasna Causevic, expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect at the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP). "The responsible court saw through this tactic and has now announced that the hearings will definitely start on August 25. Nine years after the start of the negotiations and 25 years after the genocide of Srebrenica, the relatives of the victims deserve justice and satisfaction."

After 16 years on the run, Mladic had been arrested in March 2011. In 2018, he had appealed against the Hague judgment. Even before the first hearing, Mladic's defense had requested the dismissal of three judges for alleged bias. A second hearing date had to be postponed due to a medical intervention. At the third attempt, some of the judges were not able to attend due to travel restrictions in the course of the pandemic. Mladic himself could take part in the trial by video from his cell if he wishes.

"The international community continues to fail in the prevention of genocides and a consistent implementation of its responsibility to protect," Causevic criticized. "Also, if atrocities like this do occur, prosecution must become much more effective – the perpetrators feel encouraged to commit even more crimes if they go unpunished." Mladic also bears responsibility for genocides crimes committed in six other Bosnian communities apart from Srebrenica, and he must be punished for that as well. However, as he was initially acquitted for crimes in Kljuc, Kotor Varoš, Sanski Most, Prijedor, Vlasenica, and Foca, the prosecution had appealed. "We expect that the tribunal will confirm the first-instance verdict and recognize Mladic's responsibility also for the crimes in the six other Bosnian communities. Hopefully, the glorification of this brutal murderer will end there, putting an end to the narrative of the genocide deniers," Causevic emphasized.

The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) is responsible for Mladic's case. The tribunal is the legal successor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Two days are scheduled for the hearings in the appeal proceedings – August 25 and 26. The public will not have access to the courtroom, but the proceedings will be broadcast on the IRMCT website with a 30-minute delay.