The genocide conviction of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic over the 1995 Srebrenica massacre was upheld by the War crimes judges on Tuesday. The Srebrenica massacre is Europe’s worst act of bloodshed since World War II.

Dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia”, Mladic, who is now in his late 70s, had appealed against his 2017 life sentence. UN tribunal on Tuesday rejected Mladic’s appeal. 

“The appeals chamber affirmed the sentence of life imprisonment imposed on Mr Mladic by the trial chamber,” the tribunal in The Hague said in a statement, AFP reported. 

Meanwhile, the mothers of some of the 8,000 men killed in the massacre were outside the court.

“Today is a historic day, not only for us mothers, but also for the whole Balkans, Europe and the world,” Munira Subasic, president of one of the “Mothers of Srebrenica” associations, told AFP outside court.

“He’s a monster who did not repent for what he has done, even after 26 years. Wherever their army came, wherever their boot stepped in, they committed genocide,” she added.