‘Clerical error’ could set back Ratko Mladic trial for months

The delay cast a shadow over one of the International Criminal Court’s biggest cases – and over its reputation following a series of trials which have proceeded at a snail’s pace.

Presiding judge Alphons Orie said he was delaying the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal case due to “significant disclosure errors” by prosecutors, who must give all evidence with Mladic’s lawyers.

Mr Orie said judges will analyse the “scope and full impact” of the error and aim to establish a new starting date “as soon as possible.” The presentation of evidence was supposed to begin later this month.

Prosecutors had already acknowledged the errors and did not object to the delay. Mladic’s lawyer has asked for a six-month delay to study the materials.

Mladic is accused of commanding Bosnian Serb troops who waged a campaign of murder and persecution to drive Muslims and Croats out of territory they considered part of Serbia during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.

His troops rained shells and snipers’ bullets down on civilians in the 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. They also executed thousands of Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.

He has refused to enter pleas but denies wrongdoing. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Court spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic said much of the material the defence did not get was about witnesses prosecutors had intended to call before the court’s summer break. Prosecutors acknowledged that the error “could impact on the fairness of the trial to the accused,” she said.

The tribunal published a letter from prosecutors to Mladic’s lawyer that explained the missing documents were not uploaded to an electronic database accessible to defence lawyers. “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience,” it read.

Hatidza Mehmedovic, whose husband and two sons were slain by Serb forces at Srebrenica, said she hoped the delay would not be too long.

“We are worried he won’t live to see justice,” Mrs Mehmedovic said in the tribunal’s lobby as she prepared to make the long trek back to Srebrenica. Her fears are not without reason. Mladic, now 70, suffered three strokes during his 15 years as a fugitive, his lawyer has claimed.

Earlier, prosecutors wrapped up their opening statement in Mladic’s genocide trial by recounting his forces’ systematic slayings in Srebrenica in July 1995. Mladic’s army “carried out their murderous orders with…dedication and military efficiency,” prosecutor Peter McCloskey said. Mladic showed no emotion as Mr McCloskey showed a fleeting video of what he said were the bodies of executed Muslim men piled in front of a bullet-riddled wall. Mr McCloskey outlined how Mladic’s forces summoned buses and trucks from across Bosnia to transport women and girls out of Srebrenica. The Muslim men and boys were then driven to remote locations and gunned down by firing squads, their bodies ploughed into mass graves. Mr McCloskey said the remains of 5,977 victims have been exhumed so far. It is estimated up to 8,000 were murdered.

He also showed photographs of an exposed mass grave to underscore the point that the victims were not war casualties. One photo showed a skull, its teeth exposed and its eyes covered by a blindfold. Another showed a pair of hands bound with a strip of cloth behind a body’s back.

In a video, a bullish Mladic was seen strutting through the deserted streets of Srebrenica and berating the commander of Dutch UN peacekeepers.