Today begins the appeal hearing in the Karadžić case, verdict expected by the end of the year

Before the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in The Hague, a two-day appeal hearing begins on Monday regarding the appeals of the prosecution and former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadžić, who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide and other war crimes committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Karadžić (72) is seeking the annulment of the first-instance verdict delivered in March 2016, while the prosecutors are requesting that his sentence be changed to life imprisonment. He was convicted of some of the worst war crimes, including the massacre in Srebrenica in 1995.

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The former president of the Republic of Srpska and supreme commander of the Bosnian Serb army during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995 was found guilty on 10 out of 11 counts of the indictment, including genocide against more than 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica and the years-long siege of Sarajevo, where more than 10,000 people were killed. He was acquitted on the count of genocide in seven municipalities in western Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Karadžić is the highest-ranking politician to be sentenced by the Hague Tribunal, which concluded its work last year after 24 years, after former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević died before the end of his trial in 2006.

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Karadžić was arrested on July 21, 2008, in Belgrade after 13 years on the run, where he had been living under a false identity as healer Dragan Dabić. Authorities extradited him to the Hague Tribunal, and the trial began on October 26, 2009, and concluded on October 7, 2014.

After Karadžić presents his appeal on Monday, the prosecutors are expected to speak on Tuesday. A verdict is expected by the end of the year.