Former Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic will appeal against his sentence for genocide, his lawyer said, just hours the 53-year-old was given 46-years for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Lawyer Mr Nenad Petrusic told reporters after the landmark judgment by the Hague war crimes tribunal that Krstic would appeal both against the verdict itself and the sentence.
The ruling was the first time the Hague tribunal had convicted for genocide, the most serious crime on its books. The 46-year term was its harshest penalty to date.
Krstic was convicted for his role in Europe's bloodiest atrocity since World War Two. He had pleaded not guilty to eight counts, including genocide and crimes against humanity.
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Almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered after Srebrenica fell in July 1995 in what has bee described as Europe's worst atrocity since World War Two. The town was a United Nations-designated safe areaat the time of the massacre.
"You are... guilty of genocide, General Krstic," Judge Almiro Rodrigues told the defendant.
"In July 1995, General Krstic, individually you agreed to evil and this is why today this trial chamber convicts you and sentences you to 46 years in prison."
Krstic was allowed to sit for the verdict because of an injury he sustained in which he lost a leg in a mine explosion
He was seized by NATO troops in Bosnia in December 1998, and is one of the most senior military figures to appear before the tribunal. He was a direct subordinate of Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic.
Gen Mladic and Bosnian Serb wartime leader Mr Radovan Karadzic are both accused of genocide for the Srebrenica slaughter. They are the court's most wanted fugitives after the transfer of ousted Yugoslav leader Mr Slobodan Milosevic to The Hague in June.
The trial of Krstic began in March 2000 and heard 116 witnesses. UN prosecutors catalogued killings and tortures after Srebrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces.
As Srebrenica fell, a group of up to 15,000 Muslim men and boys tried to flee across mountains and forests in Serb-held territory towards Muslim territory, but many were captured and killed. Many of the men who stayed in the town were separated from women and children and bussed away to be shot.
Genocide is defined as the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group by a 1948 UN convention.
Judges at the Hague have twice before acquitted suspects of genocide. A third genocide suspect died in detention before legal proceedings against him were completed.
The Netherlands, whose U.N. troops watched while Bosnian Serb soldiers separated Muslim males from females in preparation for the massacre, is conducting an official inquiry.
France has alsolaunched its own inquiry, stung by allegations that a French UN commander in the area deliberately allowed the Serbs to capture the town.