Ratko Mladic is a soldier and making him a criminal is unacceptable, Serb member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency Milorad Dodik said on Sunday, ahead of the final verdict in the trial of the former Bosnian Serb military leader before the UN tribunal.

“They want to make him a criminal, which is unacceptable for the Serb people and for me as the leader of that people,” said Dodik.

“My expectations from the Hague tribunal and the Mechanism (International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals) are clear and they are part of the experience that we have. They are biased and focused on the story of the Serb so that when the history is written they can say they are bad guys,” he added.

Dodik is the Presidency member who was elected by voters in Bosnia's Serb-majority region Republika Srpska, while the other two members were elected in the Bosniak-Croat shared Federation (FBiH) region.

According to him, Mladic “does not deserve such verdict” because he has no such responsibility he is being imposed, because his counterparts in Croatia and the Federation have never been sentenced although they performed military operations as well.”

The final verdict in the trial of Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb wartime general, will be pronounced on June 8 in The Hague. He was initially sentenced to life in prison for the war crimes during the Bosnian 1992-95 war but both the prosecution and defence filed appeals to the judgment.