Ratko Mladic Genocide Appeal Hearings Set for June

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals announced on Monday that Ratko Mladic is recovering well from surgery and that defence and prosecution appeals against the verdict in his trial will be heard on June 16-17 in The Hague.

The appeals were originally set for March 17-18, but were postponed because the former Bosnian Serb military chief needed a colon operation.

The UN court said doctors have concluded that the six-week recovery period that Mladic was assigned will be sufficient.

However, the new date for the appeals hearings date could be subject to change due to the coronavirus pandemic, it added. Court sessions are currently suspended and travel restrictions in effect in the Netherlands are until May 15.

The court sentenced Mladic to life imprisonment in November 2017, finding him guilty of genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising the population of Sarajevo during the siege of the city, and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

Mladic appealed against the verdict, as did the Hague prosecution, which is calling for him to be found guilty of genocide in six other municipalities in 1992.

A date for the final verdict has not yet been set, but Carmel Agius, president of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, has said it will be delivered by the end of this year.

Mladic, who is 77, has had several serious health problems while in detention in the Netherlands and has suffered two strokes and a heart attack.