Bosnian Serb general Tolimir dies in Hague jail: reports

Top Bosnian Serb general Zdravko Tolimir has died in jail at The Hague where he was serving a life sentence for genocide in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, Serbian media reported Tuesday.

Once considered the right-hand man of Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic, Tolimir was sentenced to life in 2012 by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), for his role in crimes committed on a "massive scale" during the 1990s Bosnian war.

Tolimir, aged 67, died on Monday evening at the UN war crimes tribunal detention facility at The Hague, the president of the national council for cooperation with the tribunal, Rasim Ljajic, told state-run RTS television.

His wife Nada Tolimir told the Kurir newspaper that she learned of his death late on Monday night.

"He was ill but the idiots did not allow him to come here and get treatment at home. I was surprised by the news," the former general's wife was quoted as saying.

The ICTY appeals chamber had in April last year upheld Tolimir's life sentence for genocide and crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Trial judges described Tolimir as Mladic's "eyes and ears", particularly in the July 1995 massacre at the supposedly UN-protected enclave of Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces slaughtered almost 8,000 mostly Bosnian Muslim men and boys.

Mladic himself is on trial at The Hague facing counts including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including for Srebrenica.

Tolimir was one of the most senior Bosnian Serbs to have a verdict handed down by the UN war crimes court and one of a handful of defendants found guilty of genocide.