I expect that the first-instance verdict against Ratko Mladic to life imprisonment will be confirmed, that there will be no changes regarding the count of the verdict concerning genocide in six Bosnian municipalities, including Prijedor, the executive director of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) in Serbia Ivana Zanic said in an interview with Anadolu Agency on Monday.

The final verdict against Ratko Mladic, a first-instance convicted war criminal, will be announced before the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts (IMCC) in The Hague on June 8. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Mladic to life in prison for genocide in Srebrenica, crimes against humanity in 15 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, siege, sniping and terrorizing of Sarajevo citizens from 1992 to 1995 and holding members of the UN peacekeeping mission hostage during the NATO bombing.

“My expectations are that the first-instance verdict will be confirmed, that his life sentence will be confirmed, so I don't think there will be any surprises regarding the sentence and the allegations from the verdict,” said Zanic.

According to the HLC executive director, not establishing the existence of genocide in those six municipalities was the most controversial part of the verdict and everyone wondered why the Trial Chamber decided to rule that numerous crimes took place there, but that there was no genocide, meaning that they did not establish genocidal intent.

“I don't expect that part of the verdict to be changed, because I would like to remind you that other verdicts of the Hague Tribunal didn't establish genocide in those six Bosnian municipalities, including the municipality of Prijedor, therefore I don't believe that it will happen in the second instance verdict against Mladic,” Zanic concluded.