'Butcher of Bosnia' Mladic convicted of genocide

Last updated: 22 November 2017, 1:07 pm

A United Nations court has convicted former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic of genocide and crimes against humanity.

He has been sentenced to life behind bars for his actions during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

The court in The Hague convicted Mladic of 10 of 11 counts in a dramatic climax to a groundbreaking effort to seek justice for the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Presiding Judge Alphons Orie read out the judgment Wednesday after ordering Mladic out of the courtroom over an angry outburst.

The judge said the 74-year-old general "significantly contributed" to genocide committed at Srebrenica.

Previous judgments of the tribunal in the Netherlands already ruled that the massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica was genocide.

The judge also ruled that Mladic carried out and personally oversaw a deadly campaign of sniping and shelling in Sarajevo.

"The crimes committed rank among the most heinous known to humankind," he said.

The former general initially appeared relaxed as he listened intently to the verdict but was later removed from the courtroom after he shouted at the judges when he was refused an adjournment.

His lawyer said Mladic needed a break for treatment of high blood pressure but the continued reading the verdict after Mladic removal from court.

Speaking on behalf of the association for Parents of Children Killed in Besieged Sarajevo, Fikret Grabovica told Al Jazeera, that "no such punishment exists for Mladic to get what he deserves".

"But we can be a partly satisfied with this verdict. It's very important that he received a life sentence… what I'm particularly glad about is that the indictment confirmed the terrorising and sniping of the civil population of Sarajevo, in which 1,600 children were killed," Grabovica said.

The former general, dubbed the "Butcher of Bosnia", was accused of 11 counts – including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his forces during the war in Bosnia from 1992 and 1995.

Many Bosnian Serbs, however, view Mladic as a national hero who helped Serbia through the war that broke up former Yugoslavia.