Prosecutors File Mladic Indictment Update

They include executions in Bisina, excluded from second amended indictment because of legal standard concerns.

Prosecutors File Mladic Indictment Update

They include executions in Bisina, excluded from second amended indictment because of legal standard concerns.

Friday, 21 October, 2011

Prosecutors at the Hague tribunal have filed their third amended indictment against Ratko Mladic, adding in a crime site that was previously left out.

Mladic is now accused of being responsible for the execution of more than 30 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men in the village of Bisina in the municipality of Sekovici on July 23, 1995.

The incident is being charged in relation to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, during which some 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were killed. It is considered the worst atrocity on European soil since World War II.

The Bisina killings were initially excluded from the second amended indictment, filed in June shortly after Mladic’s arrest, because judges found it did not meet the appropriate legal standards. The prosecution came back to the judges with additional supporting material and they decided to add Bisina to the charge sheet on October 13.

Mladic was the commander of the Bosnian Serb army from 1992 to 1996, and is alleged to have been responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war. These include the Srebrenica massacre, as well as the shelling and sniping campaign against Sarajevo, which killed about 12,000 civilians.

He is also charged with crimes of genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer in relation to various municipalities across Bosnia. He was arrested in Serbia on May 26 after 16 years as a fugitive.

Mladic will next appear in court on November 10.

Rachel Irwin is an IWPR reporter in The Hague.

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