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Dec. 2, 1995, file photo Bosnian-Serb General Ratko Mladic Image: OLEG STJEPANOVIC/AP/Press Association Images

Mladic trial suspended 'indefinitely' due to 'significant errors' by prosecutors

A new starting date will be established “as soon as possible” but Mladic’s lawyer has asked for a six-month delay.

THE JUDGE IN Ratko Mladic’s war crimes trial has indefinitely delayed the presentation of evidence due to “errors” by prosecutors in disclosing information to defence lawyers.

Presiding judge Alphons Orie said he was delaying the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal case due to “significant disclosure errors” by prosecutors, who are obliged to share all their evidence with Mladic’s defence team.

He said judges are still analysing 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 admitted the errors and did not object to the delay. Mladic’s lawyer has asked for a six-month delay.

Earlier, prosecutors wrapped up their opening statement in the trial by recounting in painstaking and chilling detail the systematic murder by Bosnian Serb forces commanded by Mladic of thousands of Muslim men and boys in Bosnia’s Srebrenica enclave in July 1995, Europe’s worst massacre since World War II.

Exact numbers of the Srebrenica massacre range from 7,000 to 8,000.

“In a period of only five days, from July 12-16, 1995, the armed forces of (Bosnian Serb leader) Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic expelled the civilian population of Srebrenica and murdered over 7,000 Srebrenica men and boys,” prosecuting council Peter McCloskey said.

Mladic’s army “carried out their murderous orders with … dedication and military efficiency,” he added.

Mladic, the 70-year-old former commander of the Bosnian Serb army, showed no emotion on the second day of his genocide trial as McCloskey showed judges a fleeting video of what he said were the bodies executed Muslim men piled in front of a bullet-riddled wall.

On the first day of the trial yesterday, the court’s public gallery was crowded with relatives of the slain men who angrily exchanged hand gestures with Mladic through the bulletproof glass screen separating them.

Today, most of the survivors had left and videos showing a bullish Mladic strutting through the deserted streets of Srebrenica and berating the commander of Dutch UN peacekeepers were greeted largely with silence and occasional murmurs.

One woman, Hatidza Mehmedovic, wept in the court’s lobby during a break in the proceedings.

“I buried both of my sons and my husband. Now I live alone with memories of my children,” she said. “I would never wish even Mladic to go through what I go through. Not Mladic or Karadzic. Let God judge them.”

Indictment

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. His troops rained shells and snipers’ bullets down on civilians in the 44-month-long siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo.

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

The first witness is scheduled to testify 29 July, although that may be delayed due to problems with prosecutors disclosing evidence to Mladic’s lawyers.

Mladic fled into hiding after the war and spent 15 years as a fugitive before international pressure on Serbia led to his arrest last year. Now he is held in a one-man cell in a special international wing of a Dutch jail.

But the fact that he is jailed and on trial is seen as another victory for international justice and hailed by observers as evidence that – more often than not – war crimes tribunals get their indicted suspects, even if they have to wait for years.

McCloskey outlined how, after overrunning Srebrenica, Mladic’s forces summoned buses and trucks from across Bosnia to transport women and girls out of the enclave and to move captured men to schools and other public buildings. The men were then driven to remote execution locations and gunned down by firing squads and their bodies were plowed into mass graves.

McCloskey said so far the remains – sometimes no more than a couple of bones – of 5,977 victims have been exhumed. He showed photographs of an exposed mass grave to underscore to judges that the victims were not war casualties.

One photo showed a skull, its teeth exposed in an apparent grimace, and its eyes covered by a blindfold. Another gruesome photo showed a pair of hands bound with a strip of cloth behind a body’s back.

-Mike Corder

More: Ratko Mladic goes on trial for war crimes…20 years later>

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    Mute Jon Rodgers
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:17 AM

    The iSheep going wild for all the “new” features that Android has had for years.

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    Mute Jason Doyle
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    Sep 17th 2015, 1:56 PM

    Android wouldn’t exist without the iPhone.
    I jailbreak so I get the best of both worlds.
    Won’t be updating till the jailbreak is out.

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    Mute Lou Tennant
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:05 AM

    Android. That is all

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    Mute willie
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:07 AM

    There’s always one

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    Mute Lou Tennant
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:14 AM

    Heh Heh Heh, I did it on purpose for the Craic. I’m easily amused

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    Mute Rúairí O’ Sullivan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:15 AM

    to be honest, every single feature has been on android for years! if I was an apple fan I would be seriously disappointed!

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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:13 AM

    Apple fans are never disappointed cause they don’t know what they want and rely on Apple to tell them what it is they do want.

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    Mute Jay
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:13 AM

    Lets all trot off to the android forums and boast how Iphone had the first fingerprint reader, the first x64 processor, Apple Pay etc , the first App Store and then laugh at them. And then they might realise it’s all bull anyway. It doesn’t matter what mobile os you use, no one except fan droids seem to judge people on it. Has to be an inferiority complex.

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    Mute Frank McKevitt
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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:30 AM

    I’m sure ios users are well aware of other phones functionalities but choose ios because it’s a slick user friendly and reliable phone. You sir are a pleb.

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    Mute Rúairí O’ Sullivan
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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:24 AM

    responding to facts with an insult! clap clap clap

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    Mute Dave Meagher
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    Sep 17th 2015, 12:45 PM

    But it’s not user friendly even windows 8 mobile was a better OS bar the lack of apps. I always find it humorous how defensive people get and start trading insults over a PHONE, even more humorous when it’s against reality.

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    Mute Brian
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    Sep 17th 2015, 5:55 PM

    You certainly don’t sound like you find it funny haha. You talk about being close to reality yet then say windows mobile is superior the apple OS. Oh dear!! The most bland, limited and underwhelming OS I’ve ever used. I’m a S6 Edge user and the Apple ios like it or not is one of slickest, easy to use out there. I’d love to know what kind of phone you use? Don’t say one plus please :)

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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:16 AM

    No Apple Pay yet.

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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:16 AM

    Banks here don’t/won’t support it. Nothing to do with Apple

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    Mute Alien8
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    Sep 17th 2015, 11:00 AM

    is it not down to apple negotiating with individual banks for this service? and in this case, apple don’t see the value in p1ssing around with a couple of little banks, instead waiting for the back to bend over backwards and pay them to use it? (I.e. all down to apple!!)

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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:51 AM

    Android … A cheap mans Mercedes

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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:17 AM

    Can anyone here actually get it yet?

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    Sep 17th 2015, 2:45 PM

    Id stay away from 9.1 until the official release, it drained the battery on my 6 Plus 50% quicker than 8.4 did

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    Sep 17th 2015, 9:44 AM

    My company iPhone 6 has a mandatory 6 digit lock , as did the iPhone 4 I had previous.

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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:34 AM

    Welcome to 2012 :)

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    Sep 17th 2015, 6:19 PM

    5s updated last night Eats up a hell of a lot more ram

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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:31 PM

    During testing of iOS9 it was discovered that there is an issue for users who use custom Access Point Names (APN) to access their corporate networks.
    This could affect some customers using Vodafone Office Access, Vodafone Data Control or customers who have custom-built APNs.
    The impact it may have is that if a user upgrades to iOS9 they may lose complete data connectivity.

    As a precaution we strongly recommend that any users who use custom APNs, Vodafone Office Access or Vodafone Data Control do not upgrade to iOS9, until further notice. We understand that Apple are working on a fix.

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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:38 AM

    I bet you still can’t turn vibrate off for just alarms while plugged in to the wall.

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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:55 AM

    Or receive sms notifications from ‘favourites’ while in ‘do not disturb’ mode.

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    Sep 17th 2015, 12:51 PM

    Who cares? We’ve got iMessage. Coming soon to an abroad phone near you

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    Sep 17th 2015, 8:32 PM

    The humanity

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    Sep 17th 2015, 10:48 PM

    LoL

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    Sep 17th 2015, 5:26 PM

    Podcast feature is a mess with update! Downloading loads of programmes at once! Does anyone have any advice?

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    Sep 17th 2015, 6:33 PM

    Ignore me, all grand now. Thanks!

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