Genocide trial of Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic enters its final stage

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Ratko Mladic is a former Serb army commander whose brutish leadership during Bosnia's 1990s conflict was blamed for the worst atrocities in Europe since the second world war. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:02pm, 5 Dec 2016Updated: 9:58pm, 5 Dec 2016

Prosecutors begin closing arguments on Monday in the genocide trial of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, marking the final stage of the last major case at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal.

Mladic, 74, faces up to life imprisonment for two counts of genocide and nine counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

A former general who headed the Bosnian Serb separatist forces, Mladic is one of the top suspects in the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys from the Srebrenica enclave at the end of the 1992-95 Bosnian war.

The closing arguments are expected to run through December 15, and judges will then go into deliberations. A judgement is likely in 2017. Mladic was charged alongside former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison in March.

Prosecutors say Mladic jointly masterminded a conspiracy with Karadzic to “ethnically cleanse” large parts of Bosnia of Muslims and Croats and carve out a pure Serbian state during the violent breakup of federal Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Mladic was frequently mentioned in the Karadzic judgement and specifically named as a member of all the joint criminal enterprises for which Karadzic was found guilty.