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UN court upholds Bosnian Serb commander's conviction for genocide, war crimes

08 June 2021
Dan Ackermann

A court of United Nations appeals judges on Tuesday upheld Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladić's conviction and life sentence for genocide and war crimes committed during Bosnia and Herzegovina's 1992-95 war.

Why it matters: Mladić was known as the "Butcher of Bosnia" for commanding troops responsible for the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities in Bosnia. Tuesday's verdict — 25 years after the end of the war — is one of the last major Balkan war crimes trials at the Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, per Reuters.

  • "It's really the last big trial. It is an endless story that many people thought would never end and now it will," historian Iva Vukušić told Reuters.
  • "It sends a message that things are possible even when it seems hopeless," Vukušić added about what the verdict would mean to victims and their families.

The state of play: Mladić went into hiding after the war and evaded capture for 15 years, per Reuters. He was ultimately arrested in Serbia in 2011.

  • In 2017, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of "genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes including terrorizing the civilian population of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo," reports Reuters.
  • Mladić appealed the verdict, but the court proceeding has been long delayed due to his ailing health and the coronavirus pandemic, reports the BBC.

The big picture: Presiding Judge Prisca Matimba Nyambe of Zambia announced Tuesday that the court dismissed Mladić's appeal “in its entirety” and upheld his life sentence, per AP.

  • However, the court also rejected an appeal by prosecutors to bring a second genocide conviction against Mladić for ethnic cleansing that occurred early on in the war, according to the BBC.
  • "The presiding judge dissented on almost all counts," adds the BBC.

What's next: Tuesday's court proceeding is a final verdict. A host country for Mladić's life sentence still needs to be determined, per Reuters.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.