Mladic trial put on hold

Reuters

SURVIVORS TAUNTED: Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic attends his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague.

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The United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia says the trial of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, which was due to resume this month, is suspended until further notice.

Mladic, who was arrested in Serbia in May 2011 after 16 years on the run, is accused of genocide for his role in the siege of Bosnia's capital Sarajevo and for allegedly orchestrating the 1995 killing of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica.

The court decided to suspend proceedings because of an error in disclosing documents to the defence team, the court said in a statement. Hearings had been scheduled to resume on June 25.

This is the second suspension of the trial since it opened in The Hague last month.

Mladic, who has refused to enter a plea, is the last of the main figures in the Balkan wars of the 1990s to go on trial at the court.

Relatives of victims and survivors are worried that if the trial takes too long, Mladic, who is 70 and has suffered heart trouble, could die before a verdict is rendered.

Former Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, who also faced genocide charges for the Balkan wars, died in 2006 before a judgment was issued.

- Reuters