Mladic Trial Suspended

Mladic’s trial in the Hague has been suspended indefinitely. The problem was the prosecution hadn’t fully disclosed the evidence that they were going to use; the defence has demanded that they get six months to look over the new evidence. It wasn’t an intentional error on behalf of the prosecution, rather just a clerical oversight, but one that embarrasses the prosecution and international justice. The Tribunal published a letter on Tuesday which was sent from the prosecutors to the defence lawyers, in it the letter says that the missing documents were not uploaded onto an electronic database which was accessible to Mladic’s lawyers. “We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience that these missing materials may have caused you” the letter said.

But now this may cause the prosecution dearly, any delay in Mladic’s trial means that he will spend less time when he is convicted (he is unlikely to be found innocent considering the weight of evidence against him) . When the trial does get under way eventually, it will mark the end-point to Europe’s worst conflict since WWII and hopefully the last serious conflict for Europe. As the zone of integration expands, with Turkey, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro all applying for membership of the EU (Croatia accedes next year) war will become increasingly unlikely. When Mladic and his counterparts die in prison, then Europe will have cleansed itself and will finally become a continent of peace.