Alphonso Orie, member of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia chamber that will be in charge of Ratko Mladic's trial for war crimes approved Friday the prosecution's request to amend the indictment.

According to the Dnevni Avaz daily from Sarajevo, the indictment is the same as the one against former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic. The prosecution believes this allows for the two trials to be merged.

Mladic's indictment will be reduced to 11 counts, as opposed to the earlier 15. It will still contain charges of genocide, but it would treat Srebrenica as a separate case of genocide compared to other locations and time periods. The charges of conspiracy to commit genocide will be dropped.