Bosnian Genocide

That he was also a common crook who served 11 months in prison for fraud in 1984 was not part of this carefully crafted public persona.

The wartime political leader of Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina was on Wednesday sentenced to life in prison by the Appeals Chamber of the Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague.

Follow BIRN's reporters live for all the latest developments as the UN court in The Hague delivers its final verdict in the genocide and war crimes trial of former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic.

"Certain political forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina still side with convicted criminals and joint criminal enterprises, which are glorified, and genocide, which is not admitted. Such politics are alive in Bosnia and Herzegovina," Mehmedovic told BIRN.

When reaching their final judgement, the judges at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague will remain within the parameters of the appeals filed by the prosecutors and Karadzic's defence.

The former Bosnian Serb Army chief was convicted under a first-instance verdict in November 2017 of genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising the civilian population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage, but the case has now gone to appeal.

On a weekday afternoon in the Serbian capital Belgrade, a small watering hole called Luda Kuca - Madhouse - is crammed with elderly but chatty regulars.

On February 27, 1993, Nail Kajevic waited in the southern Serbian town of Prijepolje for his brother Nijazim to arrive by train from Belgrade. But when the train arrived after some delay, his brother was not on it and the other passengers had a gruesome story to tell.

The Bosnian state court on Wednesday convicted Milomir Davidovic, alias Lici, of forcing a Bosniak woman to have sexual intercourse with him in July 1992.

In closing statements in the trial of former Bosnian Serb soldier Milomir Davidovic, his defence asked for him to be acquitted of the rape and sexual abuse of Bosniak women in Foca in July 1992.