Former Bosnian Serb Commander Ratko Mladic, who made his initial appearance in a courtroom of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on Friday, did not enter his plea to the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Mladic said that allegations from the indictment were "disgusting" and that he needed time to study them.
The presiding judge Alphons Orie of the Netherlands informed him of the ICTY rules which allow an accused to enter a plea within 30 days of their initial appearance before judges. If they refuse to do so, the court enters a plea of not guilty on their behalf. Orie scheduled the next hearing for 4 July, when Mladic will be given another opportunity to enter his plea.
Mladic was captured in Serbia on May 26 after evading arrest for 16 years. He was transferred to the Netherlands on Tuesday evening and placed in the tribunal's detention unit in The Hague's district of Scheveningen.
The ICTY indicted him on 25 July 1995 for genocide and other war crimes in Bosnia and after that for genocide in Srebrenica.
