UN Court Upholds Srebrenica Commander's Genocide Conviction

"The appeals chamber affirms Tolimir's sentence to life in prison," Judge Theodor Meron said at a hearing before the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica victims' association told AFP outside the courthouse she was "satisfied with the judgement."

"But only God can really judge him (Tolimir)," she said.

In Belgrade, another member of Subasic's organization hailed the judgement as "historic".

"It is an important message for those who still deny this crime. This verdict calls them to recognize the truth and bring to justice all war criminals who took part in that crime," Zumra Sehomerovic told AFP.

Once considered the right-hand man of Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic -- also being tried by the UN court -- Tolimir was sentenced to life in 2012 for his role in crimes committed on a "massive scale" during Bosnia's brutal three-year civil war.

Wearing a large wooden crucifix, Tolimir listened calmly as judges rejected most of his grounds of appeal.

The trial judges did not "err in finding that the accused possessed genocidal intent," Meron said.

Tolimir continuously crossed himself as Meron read the final verdict and gave a wry smile before shaking hands with his legal adviser and taken away.

Trial judges described Tolimir, now 66, as Mladic's "eyes and ears", particularly at the mid-July 1995 massacre at the supposedly UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces slaughtered almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

During Tolimir's trial, judges highlighted a number of incidents at Srebrenica including at a warehouse a few kilometers from the enclave where up to 1,000 Muslim men and boys were taken after being captured by the Bosnian Serb army.

When the warehouse was full, Serb soldiers opened fire with machine guns and tossed in hand grenades. "They fired for hours, only now and then pausing to take a break," the judges said.

Apart from genocide, Tolimir was also convicted on six other counts including murder, persecution and forcible transfer during the war, which left 100,000 people dead and 2.2 million others homeless.

Judges said the former intelligence chief was part of a "joint criminal enterprise" to turn the Srebrenica and Zepa enclaves in eastern Bosnia into ethnically pure Serbian areas.

Tolimir is one of the most senior Bosnian Serb generals to have a verdict handed down by the UN war crimes court and one of a handful of defendants found guilty of genocide.

Arrested in May 2007 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tolimir's trial has been delayed several times due to ill health.

He pleaded not guilty when his trial opened in July 2007.

Conducting his own defense, Tolimir said he did not issue combat orders at Srebrenica. What happened amounted to "fighting against terrorist groups", rather than murder after Dutch UN peacekeepers at the "safe" enclave were overrun by Mladic's forces, he argued.

Mladic himself faces 11 counts including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity including for Srebrenica.