International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals

Two defence lawyers for Milivoj Petkovic, Vesna Alaburic and Davor Lazic, in a motion filed with the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, MICT, have said that according to information from the United Nations' Detention Unit, in February 2021 the conditions would be met to consider Petkovic's early release.

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.

Miletic is serving his sentence in a prison in Finland.

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.

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 UN's Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague on Monday said it has refused to consider a request by lawyers for Radovan Karadzic, who was convicted of genocide and other wartime crimes, to have two judges he accuses of bias to be disqualified from making decisions in his case.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague has again rejected a request for early release filed by Radislav Krstic, the wartime commander of the Bosnian Serb Army's Drina Corps, who was convicted in 2004 of aiding and abetting genocide.

In February this year, Krstic asked to be released early on the basis of the law in Poland, where he is serving his sentence.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals on Wednesday denied Radovan Karadzic's motion for an appeal chamber to be appointed at the Hague court to decide on his request to review a previous decision that rejected his appeal against the final verdict in his trial sentencing him to life in prison.

Radovan Karadzic in the courtroom in The Hague in March 2016. Photo: EPA/ROBIN VAN LONKHUIJSEN/POOL.

The UN's war crimes court has yet to decide here the former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic will be sent to serve his life sentence, BIRN has learned.