Prosecutors will be allowed to present more gruesome evidence against a former Bosnian Serb military commander who has been on trial for genocide since 2012.
A United Nations-backed
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia announced
Thursday that the court will hear details about a mass grave
investigators believe has ties to Ratko Mladic. Investigators discovered the site
in
The former commanding
general of the Bosnian-Serb forces is accused of leading a campaign of
"ethnic cleansing," widespread killing, torture, forced labor and
physical, sexual and psychological violence during the Bosnian war.
More than 400 remains
recovered at the Tomasica site are suspected to be of Bosniak and Croat
ethnicity from Prijedor and its surroundings -- people killed in summer
1992, according to the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina and
the international tribunal.
In 1992, Mladic led the
siege against Sarajevo, which killed thousands of people, including
civilians, and lasted more than two years. He also spearheaded the
attack on the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica, where an estimated 7,000 men
and boys were killed. In 1995, the United Nations International
Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicted the ex-commander,
along with 51 others, on charges of war crimes and atrocities.
By the time an
international arrest warrant was issued for him and he finally turned
himself in, Mladic had gone into hiding and wasn't apprehended until
2011.
Read more: Mladic arrested and jailed
In July 2011, a tribunal
judge entered not guilty pleas for Mladic after he refused to cooperate
and was forcibly removed from the courtroom at the judge's order.
His trial began in May 2012. In court, he dragged his hand across his neck as if cutting a throat while staring at victims of the war.
On Thursday, the
tribunal said Mladic's defense team will have "ample opportunity" to
present evidence in response to the latest allegations.
He's facing life in prison.
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