Agius: Final verdict to Mladic to be announced by the end of 2020

He said that verdicts in the retrials of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic will be delivered by the end of next year

President of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals Carmel Agius has announced that the final verdict will be handed down to Ratko Mladic by the end of 2020.

Presenting his six-month report to the UN Security Council, Carmel Agius said he expects that, in addition to the Mladic verdict, verdicts will be announced by the end of next year in the retrials of Jovica Stanisic and Franko Simatovic.

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During the same session, Assistant Justice Minister Cedomir Backovic urged members of the UN Security Council to actively engage in resolving outstanding issues in the work of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, whose mandate is expiring.

The Tribunal's Trial Chamber previously found former Serb Republic Army Commander Ratko Mladic guilty of war crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 and sentenced him to life in prison.

Backovic said that many of Serbia's questions and suggestions have so far been unanswered, particularly pointing out to Serbia's fears over the tendency to change decades-old practice of mitigating sentences and early release.

At the same time, he objected to the lack of response for a decade now to Serbia's initiative to have its convicted citizens serve their sentence in their own country.

Chief Prosecutor of the tribunal Serge Brammertz said, referring to the countries of the former Yugoslavia during the UN Security Council session, that there was denial of crimes and glorifying of war criminals across the Balkans.

Video: Families of Srebrenica victims after the Karadzic trial

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)