Expert Witness in Mladić Srebrenica Case Found Dead on Day of Testimony

An expert defence witness in the prosecution of infamous Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić, was found dead on the day he was scheduled to testify at the Hague's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Dušan Dunjić was found dead on Thursday by a member of staff from the hotel where he was staying and Dutch authorities have launched an investigation into his death, according to a statement from the ICTY.

Dunjić was a forensic expert from Serbia and had testified in a number of cases before the Tribunal, serving as an expert witness in the trials of Serbian military and political officials who were involved in the Yugoslav wars, including Radovan Karadžić in which he was a defence witness, and the trials of Milan Milutinović and Vlastimir Đorđević, in which he was a prosecution witness.

A spokesman for the Dutch police told AFP that an investigation into Dunjić's death had begun but added that at this stage "we have no reason to suspect that a crime had been committed." He declined to give further details.

The violent breakup of Yugoslavia resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 people between 1992 and 1995, in a series of conflicts that reignited ethnic and religious tensions in the region.

Mladić, who led pro-Serbian fighters during the wars, is facing war crimes charges for his role in the Srebrenica massacre in which his troops overran a U.N.-protected enclave in Bosnia and killed around 8,000 Bosniak men and boys in what was the worst bloodshed on European soil since World War II. A judgment on Mladić's case is expected in November 2017.

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Lucy is the deputy news editor for Newsweek Europe. Twitter: @DraperLucy

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