The appeal hearing in the case against Bosnian Serb wartime commander Ratko Mladic before The Hague-based UN court will take place on August 25-26, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) said on Wednesday.

Due to COVID-19-related restrictions, there will be no access to the Mechanism premises for media representatives and members of the public wishing to attend the hearing. Instead, the hearing will be publicly broadcast on the Mechanism’s website with a 30-minute delay. 

On 22 November 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) convicted Mladic, former Commander of the Main Staff of the Bosnian Serb army, of genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war, sentencing him to life imprisonment.

Both the defence and prosecution appealed the judgement.

Mladic was initially indicted on 24 July 1995. After being at large for almost sixteen years, he was arrested in Serbia on 26 May 2011 and transferred to the ICTY on 31 May 2011. The trial commenced on 16 May 2012 and lasted a total of 530 days, during which some 9,914 exhibits were admitted and the Trial Chamber heard or received evidence of a total of 592 witnesses.

The case was taken over by the IMRCT, the legal successor of the ICTY, which ceased to exist on December 31, 2017.

A date for the final verdict in the trial of Mladic has not yet been set, but IRMCT PresidentCarmel Agius said it would be delivered by the end of 2020.