Verdict on this day: Sarajevans will never forget the infamous Galić

On this day eight years ago, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) sentenced Stanislav Galić, commander of the Bosnian Serbs during the siege of Sarajevo between 1992 and 1994, to life imprisonment for "terrorizing the civilian population," reports the BH news agency Patria.

This was the first time the ICTY had imposed the maximum penalty provided by its statute in a final verdict. The prosecution had sought a life sentence for Galić, commander of the Romanija Corps from September 1992 to August 1994, the unit that held Sarajevo under siege. He was the first person indicted by the ICTY to be tried for the siege of Sarajevo.

This "medieval hell," as the chief prosecutor called it, which lasted 44 months, considered the longest siege in Europe after World War II, was followed by television cameras around the world, and the international community was unable to end it.

An average of 329 projectiles fell on Sarajevo daily, and during the siege, the city was almost completely cut off from the rest of the country, causing shortages of food, electricity, gas, medicine, and water. Sarajevans often fell victim to snipers from Serb positions around Sarajevo while waiting in lines for bread and water.

During the 1,425 days of the siege, units of the former Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) under the command of Radovan Karadžić and Ratko Mladić killed 11,541 people in Sarajevo, of whom 1,600 were children. The first victims killed by snipers in Sarajevo were Olga Sučić and Suada Dilberović, after whom the former Vrbanja Bridge is now named.

See the video to see what Sarajevo looked like in 1992 in front of the BiH Presidency building towards Koševo Hospital.