Ljubiša Beara ( 14 July 1939 – 8 February 2017 ) was a Bosnian Serb colonel who participated in the Srebrenica massacre . Born in Sarajevo , Drina Banovina , Kingdom of Yugoslavia , he was Colonel and Chief of Security of the Bosnian Serb Army Main Staff . On 26 March 2002 , the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ( ICTY ) issued an indictment against him for his role in the Srebrenica Massacre . He surrendered and was transferred to The Hague on 10 October 2004 . Two days later , he appeared in the Chamber and did not enter a plea . On 10 June 2010 , the Trial Chamber brought a verdict that he " was the most senior officer of the Security Branch and had the clearest overall picture of the massive scale and scope of the killing operation . From his presence in Bratunac on the night of 13 July , to his personal visits to the various detention and execution sites and the significant logistical challenges he faced throughout , Beara had a very personal view of the staggering number of victims destined for execution . Steeped in this knowledge , he became , in the opinion of the Trial Chamber , a driving force behind the murder enterprise " . The Chamber found that Beara was a member of the JCE to murder the Bosnian Muslim males from Srebrenica , and that he participated in that JCE with persecutory intent . The Chamber was satisfied that in July 1995 Beara was intent on destroying a group by killing all the members of it within his reach , and that , beyond all reasonable doubt , he had harboured genocidal intent . He was convicted of genocide , extermination , murder and persecution and sentenced to life in prison . He died in prison in Berlin in 2017 , aged 77
Srebrenica massacre
Srebrenica massacre
Ljubiša Beara