Double time
August 17, 2011
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have requested that former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic should be tried in two separate trials, documents revealed Wednesday.
Prosecutors have proposed that Mladic should first be tried for orchestrating the Srebrenica genocide. A separate trial would then take place at a later date for his suspected role in the siege of Sarajevo and other war crimes.
Mladic described himself as "gravely ill" when he first appeared in court in June and prosecutors feared his ailing health could result in him escaping sentence.
"Trying the Srebrenica indictment first will maximize the likelihood of completing a trial and having a judgment issued," the prosecution said in the court filing.
Mladic is charged with orchestrating the genocide of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. The massacre was Europe's worst atrocity since World War II.
As several of his subordinates have already been convicted for the killing, it is thought it would be easier to first prove his guilt for the massacre. The prosecution claim they can present the evidence in the Srebrenica trial within one year.
Lengthy trials
In the past, the ICTY has been criticized for the length of its trials. In 2006, the court failed to deliver a verdict in a four-year case against the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic after he died in custody awaiting sentence.
Judges have yet to rule on the prosecutors' demands for Mladic's trial.
Mladic was arrested in Serbia in May after 16 years on the run. He was charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in the Bosnian war between 1992 and 1995.
Author: Charlotte Chelsom-Pill (dpa, Reuters)
Editor: Martin Kuebler