The final verdict against Ratko Mladić, former commander of the Republika Srpska Army's (VRS) General Staff, who is charged with the most serious war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995), including genocide, will be handed down on Tuesday, June 8, after he was sentenced to life in prison in the first instance.

The second and final verdicts will be handed down by the Appeals Chamber Judges Prisca Matimba Nyambe, Aminatta Lois Runeni N’gum, Seymour Panton, Elizabeth Ibanda-Nahamya, and the newly appointed Judge Mustapha El Baaj, as announced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

The indictment of the Hague Prosecution of Ratko Mladić as one of the key actors of joint criminal enterprises (JCE) in B&H, among other things, charges with the intention of permanent removal/persecution of Bosniaks, Bosnian Croats and other non-Serbs from large parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The ruling will close the case against the man dubbed the Butcher of Bosnia who has challenged his 2017 conviction and life sentence for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during Bosnia and Herzegovina's 1992-95 war.

Mladić, 78, is expected to be in court, where he has previously delivered angry outbursts against the West and accused the judges of lying.

Relatives of some of the men and boys killed at Srebrenica in the worst act of bloodshed on European soil since World War II will be outside the court where they have long campaigned for justice.

Mladić has maintained his innocence. The appeal case has been repeatedly delayed by his ill health and, more recently, by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court also found Mladić's political chief, Radovan Karadžić, guilty of similar charges, including genocide, in 2016, and sentenced him to 40 years in prison. In 2019, Karadžić’s prison term was changed to a life sentence.

Karadžić and Mladić were among the last suspects put on trial by the UN tribunal in The Hague for the civil war.