Prosecution of the ICTY has filed around 28,000 exhibits and will be calling 410 witnesses to testify in the case of Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb war commander.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, has filed approximately 27,906 exhibits in the case against Ratko Mladic. These documents were made public on Monday evening.
These include documents originating in the army as well as the governmental ministries and offices of the Republika Srpska, Serb entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Another large category of exhibits is based on the recovery and identification of the remains of victims of the war in Bosnia. Also, some of the files are personal notebooks, audio and video recordings and other items recovered from the Mladic’s home in Belgrade.
The prosecutor also intends to include evidence of 410 witnesses - 385 fact witnesses and 25 experts.
According to the prosecution, in order to adduce all of its evidence, the hearings are likely to last around 200 hours.
The “Ratko Mladic” case is one of the largest cases in front of the ICTY. Mladic, who was arrested in May last year after years on the run, is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and violation of laws and rules of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995.
The trial is scheduled to start with the opening arguments from both sides on March 27; however, the defence requested a postponement last week.
According to Mladic’s lawyer Branko Lukic, the defence team had received from prosecutors a large number of incorrectly entered exhibits, which made the search and selection of these documents difficult.
The decision on whether the trial will be postponed will be made at the next status conference scheduled for February 23.
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Timeline of events in the case against 13 former Serb fighters charged with committing war crimes in the villages of Cuska, Zahac, Ljubenic and Pavlac in Kosovo in 1999.