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Bosnian Serb General Convicted of Genocide Dies in The Hague


FILE - In this Wednesday April 8, 2015 file photo, Zdravko Tolimir, a Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, is escorted by U.N. security guards as he arrives in the courtroom of the the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal who delivered its judgment in his appeal case in The Hague, Netherlands.
FILE - In this Wednesday April 8, 2015 file photo, Zdravko Tolimir, a Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, is escorted by U.N. security guards as he arrives in the courtroom of the the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal who delivered its judgment in his appeal case in The Hague, Netherlands.

A Bosnian Serb general convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity died in The Hague Monday evening, a spokesman for the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said Tuesday.

The former head of military intelligence in the Bosnian Serb army, Zdravko Tolimir, 67, was sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes during the massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica, a city in Eastern Bosnia.

Announcing the verdict on December 12, 2012, the presiding judge, Christoph Fluegge, said that witnesses described Tolimir as the “right hand” and “eyes and ears” of Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic.

The judge said Tolimir was fully aware and participated in the criminal operation of Bosnian Serb forces that carried out the massacre.

"The accused not only had a knowledge of genocidal attempt of others, but also possessed it himself. He is therefore responsible for the crime of genocide," he said.

Appeals judges upheld most of his convictions last April and confirmed Tolimir’s sentence.

The alleged main architects of the Bosnian Serb massacres, Mladic and former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, are being held at the tribunal's detention unit in The Hague.

Mladic's trial is still underway, while verdicts in Karadzic's case are expected to be delivered early this year.

Both men are charged with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian war that left 100,000 people dead.

Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died in 2006, while on trial for genocide and other crimes.

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