After the end of the war, a warrant was issued for his arrest, but the former commander of the Republika Srpska Army hid from the judiciary for 16 years. He was arrested on May 26, 2011, in his relatives’ house in Lazarevo, in the north of Serbia, after which he was transferred to the Hague Tribunal.
The trial began in May 2012. During the multi-year process, 592 witnesses were produced, about 10,000 pieces of evidence were presented, and the court also took into account 2,000 decided facts.
During the trial, the young man claimed that he was innocent, provoked the victims and refused the judges’ orders.
Life sentence for genocide and war crimes
On the day of the first-instance verdict in 2017, Mladić was removed from the courtroom after refusing to comply with the judge’s order.
“Mr. Mladić will be removed from the courtroom”, it was announced from the courtroom at the time.
The former commander of the Republika Srpska Army was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first instance for participating in four joint criminal enterprises: genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo and taking members of international peacekeeping forces hostage.
“For the crimes he committed, the panel sentences Mr. Ratko Mladić to life imprisonment,” it was stated during the sentencing.
At the same time, the first-instance verdict dismissed the part of the indictment that accused him of genocide in Foča, Kotor Varoš, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Ključ and Vlasenica.
Appeals of the prosecution and defense
Both the Prosecution and the defense filed appeals against the first-instance verdict. The procedure was postponed for a period due to Mladić’s health condition, as well as the coronavirus pandemic.
The prosecution demanded that Mladić, in addition to the genocide in Srebrenica, be declared guilty of genocide in six other municipalities.
The defense, on the other hand, requested that the appellate panel annul the conclusions of the first-instance panel, cancel the conviction and issue an acquittal decision.
“Ratko Mladić is not a war hero, he is a war criminal,” said the Prosecutor’s Office.
Final verdict in 2021
Ten years after his arrest and a quarter of a century after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, on June 8, 2021, Ratko Mladić was given a final verdict.
The appeals panel confirmed a life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.
“Confirms”, it was announced when pronouncing the final decision.
With this, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and then the International Mechanism for Criminal Courts as its legal successor, ended its last case directly related to the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
