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IRMCT Appeals Chamber unanimously rejects Ratko Mladić's appeal on all grounds

  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs
The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals Appeal Chamber unanimously rejected all grounds of appeal by Ratko Mladić, former Bosnian Serb army chief, thereby confirming the first-instance judgement. In 2017, Ratko Mladić was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the siege of Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Appeals Chamber judgement is final. Ratko Mladić was found guilty on ten out of eleven counts of the indictment. The Appeals Chamber confirmed the sentence of life imprisonment, by which the key stage of the processing of war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the genocide, was completed.

The final sentence for one of the gravest crimes committed in Europe since the Second World War is of great importance for the survivors, families of the deceased and those still considered missing. Srebrenica is imprinted in the collective memory and acts as a reminder to the international community that such atrocities will never again go unpunished. Any denial, relativisation or even glorification of these events is unacceptable.

Concluding judicial proceedings against individuals accused of serious crimes and dreadful atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia, accepting responsibility, and confronting the truth are the key steps towards reconciliation in the region, which is a precondition for the stability and security of the Western Balkans.