During the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, Tolimir (64) served as assistant for intelligence and security to Bosnian Serb Army Commander Ratko Mladic, who is also on trial before the ICTY.

The majority of the trial chamber has found you guilty of the crimes of genocide and conspiracy to commit genocide, Presiding Judge Christoph Fluegge told the accused while reading the judgement.

The trial chamber found based on the evidence presented that at least 4,970 Bosnian Muslims had been killed in the Srebrenica area, and the judge said that this was a conservative estimate of the total number of people killed after the fall of the Srebrenica enclave.

The trial chamber found beyond a reasonable doubt that Tolimir had taken part in two joint criminal enterprises of the Bosnian Serb political and military leadership the aim of which was the mass killing and forcible removal of the Muslim population from the two enclaves.

Tolimir was also found guilty of the crimes of extermination, murder, persecutions and the forcible removal of Muslims from Srebrenica and Zepa from July to November 1995. Judge Fluegge, quoting a witness, described Tolimir as the right-hand man and "eyes and ears" of General Ratko Mladic.

The Srebrenica massacre was described as genocide in the appeal judgement against the former commander of the Bosnian Serb Army's Drina Corps, General Radislav Krstic, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison for aiding and abetting the genocide at Srebrenica, and trial judgements against a group of Bosnian Serb Army commanders who were given prison terms ranging from 35 years to life imprisonment for genocide or aiding and abetting genocide.

The ICTY has delivered several more judgements for the Srebrenica massacre in which it was described as a crime of extermination and murder.