Mladic closing speech cut short at genocide appeal

FILE PHOTO: Former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic arrives for his appeal hearing at the UN International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, Netherlands August 25, 2020. UN-IRMCT/Leslie Hondebrink-Hermer/Handout via REUTERS /File Photo

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A U.N. judge cut short the closing remarks of former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic on Wednesday as he appealed his life sentence for war crimes, including genocide, during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

Mladic, 77, led Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-95 Bosnian War. He was convicted in 2017 on charges including terrorizing the civilian population of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during a 43-month siege, and the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, Bosnia in 1995.