Mladic Opens Defense At Genocide Trial

The defense team for Ratko Mladic is set to begin their defense.

Former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic launched the defense case in his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on May 19.

The defense opened with the written testimony of a former Serb Army officer.

Mladic lawyer Miodrag Stojanovic told judges in a summary of Mile Sladoje's seven-page written testimony, "All military activities were defense activities."

Stojanovic said Sladoje "never received an order from his superior command, nor did he issue an order...to attack civilian facilities" in the besieged Bosnian capital of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 war.

Mladic faces 11 charges, including genocide and crimes against humanity.

Mladic denies all charges, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Mladic was arrested in May 2011 and transferred to the tribunal in The Hague.
Based on reporting by AFP and AP