Latest / Spoken News / Bosnian Serb military officer and convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić dies in prison at the age of 84.

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Bosnian Serb military officer and convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić dies in prison at the age of 84. · Spoken News

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Spoken News, where Wikipedia excerpts are read verbatim
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  by a computer. Bosnian Serb military officer and convicted war
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  criminal Ratko Mladic dies in prison at the age of 84.
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  Ratko Mladic was a Bosnian Serb military officer who led
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  the army of Republika Srpska during the Yugoslav wars. Referred
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  to as the Butcher of Bosnia, he was found guilty
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  in 2017 of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
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  genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
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  He served a life sentence for these crimes in The
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  Hague until his death in 2026. A longtime member of
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  the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, Milotic began his career
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  in the Yugoslav People's Army in 1965. He came to
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  prominence during the Yugoslav Wars, initially as a high-ranking officer
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  of the JNA and subsequently as the chief of staff
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  of the Army of Republika Srpska, in the Bosnian War
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  of 1992-1995. In July 1996, the trial chamber of the ICTY,
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  proceeding in the absence of Mladic under the ICTY's Rule 61,
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  confirmed all counts of the original indictments, finding there were
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  reasonable grounds to believe he had committed the alleged crimes,
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  and issued an international arrest warrant. The Serbian and United
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  States governments, offered 5 million euros for information leading to Mladic,
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  less capture and arrest, but he remained at large for
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  nearly 16 years, initially sheltered by Serbian and Bosnian Serb
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  security forces and later by family. In 2011, Mladic was
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  arrested in Lazarevo, Serbia and extradited to The Hague. His
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  capture was considered to be one of the preconditions for Serbia,
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  being awarded candidate status for European Union membership. His trial
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  formally commenced in 2012 and lasted until 2017, when he
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  was sentenced to life in prison by the ICTY after
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  being found guilty of ten charges, one of genocide, five
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  of crimes against humanity, and four of violations of the
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  laws or customs of war. He was cleared of one
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  further count of genocide. As the top military officer with
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  command responsibility, Mladic was deemed by the ICTY to be
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  responsible for both the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre.
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  Mladic was denied numerous requests for compassionate release due to
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  terminal illness while incarcerated. The prosecutor versus Ratko Mladic was
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  a war crimes trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for
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  the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, Netherlands, concerning crimes committed
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  during the Bosnian War by Ratko Mladic in his role
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  as a general in the Yugoslav People's Army and the
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  Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska. Judge
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  Alfons Ori of the Netherlands presided over the case, with
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  two assisting judges, Bakone Justice Maloto of South Africa and
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  Christoph Flog of Germany. Proceedings began on 3 June 2011
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  with a listing of the charges against Malotic, which included
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  violations of the laws or customs of war, genocide, and
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  crimes against humanity, particularly in connection with the Srebrenica massacre,
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  and Siege of Sarajevo. The verdict was delivered on the
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  22nd of November 2017. Milotic was convicted of 10 of
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  the 11 charges and sentenced to life imprisonment. Milotic was
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  planned to present his appeal in March 2020, but it
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  was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The first appeal
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  hearings were held on 25 and the 26th of August 2020,
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  and on the 8th of June 2021, Milotic's final appeal
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  was rejected 4-1. That's it for now. See the episode
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  notes for sources and licensing. Thank you.