Mladic Ejected for Insulting Witness

The presiding judge ordered Mladic out of the courtroom on Wednesday after he spoke to the protected witness who had been testifying about how he survived the execution of around 1,200 Bosniaks at the Branjevo military farm near Zvornik on July 16, 1995.

Judge Alphons Orie asked the protected witness, codenamed ‘RM-346’, whether Mladic had addressed him.

“Probably, because he said I was lying about everything. I am not sure it was about me, I assume so,” the witness replied.

While Mladic was being removed from the courtroom, he shouted at the judge: “How dare you throw me out, you bear. I told that to my lawyer, not to him. This Turk is lying…”

Mladic’s lawyer Branko Lukic insisted that his client had only spoken to him, complaining that the witness “learned this all by heart”.

Former Bosnian Serb commander Mladic, who is charged with genocide in Srebrenica and other wartime crimes, had only just returned to the trial after two days of absence while recovering from minor surgery.

The trial continues.