The screening of a film that glorifies Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb wartime general who is to hear the final ruling on war crime and genocide charges at a UN court on Tuesday, was held in Bosnian eastern town of Bratunac, the place where some of the most heinous crimes that Mladic is charged with were committed during the 1992-95 war.

According to the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), the organisers said the event was held “as a sign of support and gratitude to the Serb general, hero and war commander of the Republika Srpska army.”

The film screening, according to BIRN, commenced with the attendees cheering in support of Mladic: “Long live Republika Srpska, long live Ratko Mladic.”

Podizanjem tri prsta i uzvicima "Živjela Republika Srpska", "Živio Ratko Mladić" započela je projekcija filma na centralnom trgu u Bratuncu. @BIRN_BiH pic.twitter.com/LFbHMFuUxc

— Nermina Kuloglija (@NKuloglija) June 7, 2021

The billboards with images of Mladic and messages ‘there was no genocide’ also appeared across the city, ahead of the final ruling in the trial of the Bosnian Serb military commander.

About ten supporters and members of the Eastern Alternative association, which organised the film screening, were seen at the event.

This sparked the reactions, mostly on social media, including that of Bosnia's Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic.

“A disgraceful display of “Genocide Glorification” on the eve of the final verdict by the ICTY in the Hague for the “Butcher of Bosnia”. In the same area were one of most heinous crimes known to humankind occurred,” the minister tweeted.

A disgraceful display of “Genocide Glorification” on the eve of the final verdict by the ICTY in the Hague for the “Butcher of Bosnia”. In the same area were one of most heinous crimes known to humankind occured! #PassGenocidelawNow https://t.co/Y5U5kIM41c

— Bisera Turković (@BiseraTurkovic) June 8, 2021

The Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunal, a UN court for the war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, will hand down today the final verdict in the case of Ratko Mladic, who was initially sentenced to life in prison for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war of 1990s.

The UN court, formerly called the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Mladic on November 22, 2017, in a first-instance verdict to life imprisonment.

Mladic was a Bosnian Serb military leader during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and trial judges found he was responsible for overseeing the murder of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica in 1995, known as Srebrenica genocide.

Trial judges found Mladic was responsible for ethnic cleansing campaigns against Bosnian Muslims and Croats, and murdering and terrorising civilians in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during a 43-month siege, as part of a plan to forge a “Greater Serbia” out of parts of the former Yugoslavia.

Mladic was acquitted of genocide charges in six Bosnian municipalities in 1992.

Both the prosecution and defence filed appeals to the verdict.