The two-day appeal hearing of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, who was sentenced to life in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war, has started on Tuesday.

In 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Mladic to life in prison for the Srebrenica genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war.

Both the defence and prosecution appealed the ruling.

His defence team requests a new trial or for the sentence to be reduced.

Prosecutors, however, want Mladic to be sentenced for genocide committed in six municipalities other than Srebrenica.

Mladic was initially indicted on 24 July 1995. After being at large for almost sixteen years, he was arrested in Serbia in 2011 and transferred to the ICTY. The trial lasted a total of 530 days and involved testimonies of 592 witnesses.

The case was taken over by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), the legal successor of the ICTY which closed down in 2017.

Mladic’s two-day appeal hearing was previously postponed several times due to his health issues and the coronavirus pandemic.