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Ratko Mladic Verdict: Live Blog
Follow us live for all the latest developments as the Hague Tribunal delivers its verdict in the trial of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic.
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Ratko Mladic’s Judgement Day
Twenty-two years after he was indicted for the worst atrocities in Europe since WWII, former Bosnian Serb Army commander Ratko Mladic will hear his verdict today in what is one of the most anticipated judgements in the history of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.
At 10am, the Hague Tribunal will deliver its ruling in Mladic’s landmark trial for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Read more about the background of the trial.
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"After hearing the testimonies of more than 300 witnesses and reviewing almost 10,000 pieces of evidence, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague will announce its first-instance verdict in the trial of Ratko Mladic for genocide and other alleged wartime crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina at 10am.
Mladic is charged with genocide against more than 7,000 men and boys from Srebrenica in 1995, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats which reached the scale of genocide in six municipalities in 1992, terrorising the inhabitants of Sarajevo with a campaign of shelling and sniper attacks, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage." -
The Ratko Mladic defence strategy was based on the reasoning of the first-instance verdict against former Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic, in which he was acquitted of genocide in 1992, one of Mladic’s defence lawyers, Miodrag Stojanovic, explained in the lead up to today's verdict.
While Mladic is on trial for genocide in seven municipalities, including Srebrenica – where over 7,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered in 1995 – there is big question hanging over prosecutors heads as to whether they have been able to prove it.
“It is hard, almost impossible to prove genocidal intent; it is created from circumstantial evidence, not from the number of killings, the horrific nature of the crime, or the place… it is the personal relation of the perpetrator to the crime, international humanitarian law professor Zerije Seizovic told BIRN. -
Despite previous suggestions by his legal team that Ratko Mladic might not attend today’s verdict due to ill health, his lawyer Branko Lukic told Serbia’s national broadcaster, RTS, that the defendant will be present after all.
Lukic could not confirm that Mladic, who is 74 and has long complained of poor health, will remain for the whole session because the reading of the verdict will continue for more than two hours.
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BIRN reporters in The Hague said there was an incident this morning in front of the
UN tribunal building when a man arrived carrying a Serbian flag. The man said
he thought Mladic was a hero.Two representatives of Bosnian war victims confronted him, telling him he should
"not provoke" people, and the man then left. -
Ratko Mladic’s son Darko has arrived at the UN court to hear his father’s verdict. There are around 100 people waiting outside the court, including representatives of war victims, according to BIRN reporters in The Hague.Fikret Alic, a survivor of the Omarska detention camp where Bosniaks were detained by the Bosnian Serbs, told BIRN that he expects a guilty verdict.“I will see him sentenced to life, both for genocide and crimes against humanity,” said Alic.
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In Bosnia’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska, one local resident, Branko Tomic, said he thought that Mladic’s verdict will be a guilty one, but that this was a falsification of history.“He is our hero. Our general,” Tomic told BIRN in Banja Luka.
Branko Tomic in Banja Luka. Photo: BIRN -
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Serbian state-owned daily newspaper Vecernje Novosti reported on Wednesday that Ratko Mladic told his family during a visit yesterday that he “knows” he is innocent.“They can do what they want with me, but cannot take my soul,” Mladic reportedly told his wife and son.
Ratko Mladic on trial at the Hague. Photo: ICTY/Screenshot -
The Serbian tabloids on Wednesday morning were dominated by reports about Mladic’s claims of innocence.Pro-government daily Informer interviewed Serbian ultra-nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj, himself a war crimes defendant, who said that a harsh sentence for Mladic would be the same as a “death penalty”.
Photo: BIRN -
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As proceedings got underway, judge Alphons Orie reviewed the charges against Mladic, who is accused of genocide and crimes against humanity."Many non-Serbs were killed in attacks by the Bosnian Serb forces. Perpetrators showed little regard for life,” said Orie.
Alphonse Orie. Photo: BIRN -
Judge Orie said that the chamber concluded that crimes against humanity were committed in the municipalities of Banja Luka, Foca, Kljuc, Bijeljina, Kotor Varos, Kljuc, Pale, Prijedor, Rogatica, Sanski Most, Sokolac and Vlasenica in 1992.He added that prisoners were abused in Bosnian Serb detention camps across Republika Srpska, and some men and many women were also sexually abused.
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Speaking about the count accusing Mladic of genocide in six Bosnian municipalities in 1992, Orie said that according to the judges, some perpetrators in the six municipalities had a plan to destroy Bosniaks, but the chamber found that the targeted group represented a relatively small number of the group of the total number of Bosniaks.
Poster in support of Mladic in the Bosnian village of Bratunac. Photo: Amel Emric/Beta/AP -
Speaking about the allegations that Mladic was responsible for terrorising Sarajevo during the city’s siege, Orie said that the Bosnian Serb Army - specifically members of its Sarajevo Romanija Corps - targeted civilians. Orie said the Sarajevo Romanija Corps “intended to spread terror among the population of Sarajevo”.“The city was indiscriminately attacked,” he also said.
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On the allegation that Mladic was responsible for genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, the judge said Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic ordered the Bosnian Serb army to create "impossible conditions for civilians in 1995", and then Mladic "made this order into reality".
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The killings of Srebrenica men were committed by Bosnian Serb forces in a systematic manner within several days from July 12 to 17, 1995, Orie said.“The Bosnian Serb forces tried to hide the [Srebrenica] crime, by digging up and reburying Bosniak victims in mass graves,” said the judge. “Their attempt... ultimately failed.”
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Judging by the speeches and actions of Mladic and other Serb leaders, as well as the acts committed by the perpetrators, the court found that the logical conclusion is not that perpetrators wanted to commit genocide in six Bosnian municipalities in 1992, the judge said.
Victims' associations in front of the Hague Tribunal Building. Photo: Phil Nijhuis/Beta/AP -
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Serbia’s Justice Minister Nela Kuburovic said that the guarantees that the Serbian government offered - to ensure Mladic does not abscond if he is given temporary release from prison to seek medical treatment in Belgrade - will remain in place regardless of whether or not he is found guilty.
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The session has recommenced and Ratko Mladic’s defence has asked the court to delay the sentencing or move directly to reading out the verdict. The judges rejected the request, after which Mladic got up and started shouting "this is a lie", and was removed from the courtroom.
Photo: BIRN -
Reading the verdict, judge Alphons Orie said that Mladic had the intent to persecute Bosniaks and Croats and create ‘ethnically clean’ territories.Orie also said that the court had found that a joint criminal enterprise existed with the aim of terrorising the population of Sarajevo with a campaign of shelling and sniping.
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The judge said Mladic had control over the Sarajevo Romanija Corps of the Bosnian Serb Army, whose members committed atrocities such as shelling and sniping at people in the city. The court found that Mladic's goal was to implement a campaign of terror against civilians.
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The court found that a joint criminal enterprise was carried out with the aim of killing Bosniak men from Srebrenica. Mladic was a member of that joint criminal enterprise in Srebrenica, according to judge Orie, who said Bosnian Serb forces were given orders by the defendant who was in the field on July 11, 1995.Mladic had effective control over police and military personnel who committed the Srebrenica crimes, judge Orie said, and without his actions, the aim of the joint criminal enterprise would not have been achieved in the same way.
Photo: Amel Emric/Beta/AP -
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Judge Orie also said that there existed a joint criminal enterprise to arrest UN officials and hold them in specific areas to stop NATO attacking Bosnian Serb positions. The chamber found that Mladic assisted this joint criminal enterprise. He was involved in all its aspects, ordering his subordinates to hold UN peacekeepers.
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The UN court in The Hague found Ratko Mladic not guilty of genocide in six Bosnian municipalities in 1992.Mladic has been found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, crimes against humanity and persecution across the country, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
Mladic in the Hague. Photo: BIRN -
Ratko Mladic has been sentenced to life in prison by the Hague Tribunal.
Presiding judge Alphonse Orie. Photo: BIRN
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Murat Tahirovic, the president of the Victims and Witnesses of Genocide association, told BIRN that he is happy that Mladic got life in prison."I am not happy though that the chamber did not make a step forward in justice and find that genocide did take place in 1992," Tahirovic added.
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BIRN reporters at the court said that when the judge announced that Mladic was sentenced to life in prison, Bosnian war victims applauded. Hajra Catic from the Mothers of Srebrenica association said this was "partial justice"."It's good that it is life in prison. This is of symbolic importance," said Catic.
Victims outside of the courtroom. Photo: Phil Nijhuis/AP/Beta -
Fikret Grabovica from the Association of Parents Whose Children were Killed in Wartime said that the verdict was just. "It shows that you cannot commit crimes with impunity," he said at the Hague.Grabovica also accused Mladic of showing "what a coward he is by his behaviour in court". Mladic was ejected from the courtroom after an angry outburst at the judges.
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Ratko Mladic’s son Darko accused the Hague court of bias against his father."I'm not surprised [about the verdict]. The court was totally biased from the start," the Telegraph newspaper quoted him as saying.
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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Serbia should “not choke on tears over the past” after Ratko Mladic was sentenced to life in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.“My call to people in Serbia today is to start looking to the future,” Vucic told Serbian media.He also said that “unpunished crimes” against Serbs cannot diminish the magnitude of those committed by Serbs.
Serbian President Vucic. Photo: Darko Vojinovic/AP/Beta -
The Hague Tribunal’s chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz said that he was satisfied with the Mladic verdict.“We are frustrated with the fact that Mladic was acquitted of genocide in 1992, but the good thing is that the chamber found that several persons in these municipalities had genocidal intent,” said Brammertz.
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Serbian right-wing parties slammed the Hague Tribunal’s sentencing of Ratko Mladic, claiming that the court had confirmed its ‘anti-Serb’ stance.“The verdict is political, and it’s mostly directed against the Serbs who took part in the war, a little against Serbia, but mostly against Republika Srpska,” said the leader of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Seselj.The leader of the right-wing Dveri party, Bosko Obradovic, called Mladic a “war hero” and said that the sentence was a “scandal”.
Vojislav Seselj. Photo: Beta -
Hague Tribunal chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz rejected any suggestion that this was a verdict against the Serbs.“Mladic’s guilt is his, and his alone,” Brammertz said. “Others will say that Mladic is a hero and was defending his people. This judgment demonstrates that nothing could be further from the truth. Mladic will be remembered by history for the many communities and lives he destroyed,” he added.He said that the “true heroes” were the victims and survivors “who never gave up on their quest for justice” and displayed real courage by testifying at the Tribunal and confront those who wronged them.
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International campaign group Human Rights Watch said that Mladic’s conviction “shows that justice catches up with those responsible for horrific atrocities”“The Mladic verdict should send a message to those in power around the world who are committing brutal atrocities, whether in Burma, North Korea, or Syria, that justice can find those who seem untouchable,” said Param-Preet Singh, associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
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