International criminal law

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals announced on Monday that Ratko Mladic is recovering well from surgery and that defence and prosecution appeals against the verdict in his trial will be heard on June 16-17 in The Hague.

The appeals were originally set for March 17-18, but were postponed because the former Bosnian Serb military chief needed a colon operation.

There is a Bulgarian national aboard a the attacked by pirates ship off the coast of Cotonou in Benin. He is also the captain of the attacked container ship. This was confirmed by the MFA which received diplomatic confirmation from Portugal and the Federal Republic of Germany.

Miodrag Stojanovic, one of the lawyers representing Ratko Mladic at his trial in The Hague, told BIRN that the former Bosnian Serb military commander had a colon operation on Monday and has now left hospital.

"He was discharged from the hospital yesterday [Wednesday] and returned to the [UN] detention unit [in the Netherlands]," said Stojanovic.

The Association of Defence Counsel Practising Before the International Courts and Tribunals urged the UN's Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Friday to free elderly war crime convicts to help ensure that they are not infected with the COVID-19 virus.

The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre NGO said in a report published on Wednesday that Serbian war crimes prosecutors are continuing to issue only a small number of indictments, most of them in cases transferred from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and none of them charging high-ranking suspects.

Ratko Mladic's defence lawyers said on Monday that they have asked the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague to delay appeal hearings set for March 17 and 18 in order to check whether the former Bosnian Serb military commander is well enough to participate in the proceedings.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague said on Monday that it has decided not to grant early release to Radoslav Brdjanin, who is serving a 30-year sentence for committing crimes against humanity during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Turkey condemned the Syrian regime parliament over a resolution recognizing the 1915 incidents in Ottoman era as so-called "genocide".

"Syrian Regime Parliament's resolution today (Feb. 13) recognizing the incidents of 1915 as so-called genocide provides a grim example in itself," a written statement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said.

The Bosnian state court told BIRN that 47 people accused of committing crimes during the 1992-95 war are being sought for arrest, 25 of whom are outside the country.

Twenty-four of those who are wanted have Serbian citizenship, or dual citizenship of Serbia and Bosnia, according to prosecutors.

The House of Peoples, the upper house of the Bosnian parliament, voted on Thursday against changing the criminal code of Bosnia and Herzegovina to criminalise the denial of genocide and war crimes.