Paris: A verdict in one of the most closely watched war crimes cases in recent history - the genocide trial of Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general held responsible for the massacre of some 8000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995 - is expected this month, after a judge rejected defence lawyers' pleas to postpone the judgment.

The decision, by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, came after defence lawyers for Mladic, 75, contended that he was no longer mentally and physically competent to appear in court. His is the last high-profile case before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Former Bosnian Serb military chief General Ratko Mladic smiles during his appearance at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in the Hague in 2014.

Lawyers have demanded that Serbian doctors review Mladic's condition, insisting that court-appointed physicians have been playing down their client's dire state and neglected to carry out important tests for heart disease and brain damage. The lawyers also say they were denied the full release of all of his medical records.

Dan Ivetic, an American lawyer who is the co-counsel on the Mladic team, said his client's condition - already weakened by two strokes by the time he was arrested in 2011 - has worsened since his trial ended last December. Court-appointed doctors as well as teams of Russian and Serbian specialists who saw him in 2015, have said that Mladic risked another stroke or a heart attack.