A United Nations court at The Hague said it will hear the appeal of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, sentenced to life in prison for his role in the mass killings at Srebrenica, in March.
The court on December 16 scheduled two days of hearings for March 17-18 to hear arguments on Mladic's appeal.
Dubbed the Butcher of Bosnia, the 77-year-old Mladic is appealing his 2017 life sentence after being convicted for his role in the killings at Srebrenica, a mass slaughter of Bosnian Muslim men that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ruled was genocide.
Mladic was also convicted for the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina during the wars that ravaged Yugoslavia in the early 1990s as well as terrorizing the Sarajevo population by long-term shelling and sniping. He was also found guilty of taking UN soldiers hostage in 1992-95.
Mladic has maintained his innocence and is lionized by many ethnic Serbs in Serbia and Bosnia.
The court that is hearing Mladic's appeal is formally called the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, and serves as the successor court to the international tribunal that ended its work in December 2017.
Prosecutors at the Hague have also appealed Mladic’s case, seeking a reversal of his acquittal on charges of genocide in six other Bosnian municipalities.
Judge Carmel Agius, president of the Mechanism, said last week that he expects a final verdict would be handed down in the Mladic appeal by the end of 2020.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia also found Mladic's political chief, Radovan Karadzic, guilty of similar charges, including genocide, in 2016, and sentenced him to 40 years in prison.
Karadzic filed an appeal against his conviction, but it was rejected in March 2019 and his sentence was increased to life imprisonment.
In total, about 100,000 people were killed and 2.2 million others displaced in the 1992-95 wars, which erupted as ethnic rivalries tore Yugoslavia apart.
Hague Tribunal Sets March Dates For Mladic Appeal

Editors' Picks
Top Trending
1
After Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine, Bulgaria Is Rapidly Trying To Modernize Its Armed Forces
2As Armenia And Azerbaijan Seek Peace, Proposed Zangezur Corridor Could Be Major Sticking Point
3Ukraine Hails Arrival Of First U.S. Abrams Tanks As Occupation Officials Claim Missile Attack On Sevastopol Repelled
4Crimea: The Last 'Gentleman's War'
5Who Was Behind The Deadly Attack At The Orthodox Monastery In Kosovo?
6Kherson Under 'Massive Shelling' As Cities In Southern Ukraine On Alert
7Chechen Strongman Releases Video Of Teenage Son Beating Alleged Koran Burner
8Roads Clogged As Ethnic Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh; Mass Casualties Reported In Fuel Depot Blast
9'Too Bad, Vladimir:' Hillary Clinton Taunts Putin On NATO Expansion Since Invasion
10Polish Experts Confirm Missile That Hit Grain Facility Was Ukrainian
Subscribe