The trial of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, accused of overseeing some of the worst atrocities in Europe since the second World War, has been suspended indefinitely, according to agency reports.
Mladic (70) is facing 11 charges stemming from his actions as the Serb military commander in the Bosnian war of 1992-95 ranges from genocide to murder, acts of terror and crimes against humanity.
The trial judge suspended the case indefinitely this morning due to disclosure errors by prosecutors.
Mladic is the last of the main protagonists in the Balkan wars of the 1990s to go on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Mladic flashed a defiant thumbs-up as he entered the courtroom and made a throat-slitting gesture to a woman who lost her son, husband and brothers in the Srebenica massacre at the start of his trial yesterday.
A hero to Serb nationalists, the “Butcher of Bosnia” to his Muslim and Croat victims, Mladic eluded justice for 16 years until his capture in a cousin’s farmhouse in Serbia last May.
He is also accused of orchestrating the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, in which more than 10,000 people were killed by snipers, machine guns and heavy artillery.
Mladic, who refused to enter a plea, cuts a much frailer figure now than his bullish, strutting wartime persona – his defence lawyer said he had suffered three strokes and a heart attack. But he appears to have lost none of his defiance.
In the public gallery, Munira Subasic, whose 18-year-old son, husband and brothers were killed in Srebrenica, stared at him from behind a glass barrier, crossing her wrists to imitate handcuffs. Mladic stared back and drew a hand across his throat.
Presiding judge Alphons Orie promptly called a brief recess and ordered an end to “inappropriate interactions”.
“I thought I would see at least some remorse in his eyes when I came here,” Ms Subasic said. “But instead I saw his bloodthirstiness. I don’t know how he can live with what he did, with killing so many people.”
The proceedings were broadcast live on big screens in Sarajevo, where thousands were killed by snipers or artillery while queuing for water or bread, or crossing the street.
Hasna Hadzic, a pensioner who survived the siege, was visibly shaken. “I feel like crying when I think of what he has done to us: killed 8,000 in Srebrenica alone, killed people in Foca, Visegrad, our children in Sarajevo,” she said, wiping away tears. “They shouldn’t have put him on trial. They should have liquidated him immediately.”