Serbian president bemoans Hague for refusing to release dying ex-army chief for treatment

Serbia renews plea to release ailing Ratko Mladic; Hague court stands firm

BELGRADE — Serbia has renewed its request that Ratko Mladic, the convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal, be released on health grounds for treatment in Serbia, warning that his death "could come at any time." The 84-year-old is serving a life sentence in The Hague after being found guilty in 2017 of genocide and war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.

Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic wrote to Graciela Gatti Santana, president of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, asking her to consider Mladic's early release. The letter, quoted by Serbia's Justice Ministry, stated: "It is no longer a question of whether Ratko Mladic is seriously ill. The Mechanism's medical findings confirm that he has entered the final stage of his life, that the options for further medical treatment are extremely limited and that death may occur at any moment. These circumstances require humanity and respect for inherent human dignity to be paramount."

Serbia has offered to transfer Mladic to the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade for treatment in the presence of his relatives, subject to "any measures that the Mechanism deems necessary," according to the minister.

President Aleksandar Vucic has also weighed in, saying Mladic is "on the brink of death" and that the Mechanism still refuses to release him on humanitarian grounds. "General Mladic is on the brink of death. Whether he has one week or five weeks left does not matter. This has nothing to do with their verdicts or anyone's opinion. In General Mladic's case, this is about treating a person humanely. Frankly, I do not understand their approach, why they're acting like this. This is not the civilization we have been told about for so many years and decades," Vucic told reporters while visiting the construction site of a children's hospital in Belgrade.

Mladic's family had previously sought his release, citing severe illness and a stroke in April. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals rejected the demand in May, stating at the time that Mladic had access to proper medical care in prison. The court, which is the successor body to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), also denied a request for early release in 2025 that had been filed on health grounds.

Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, told Serbian media on Friday that "this is a silent murder of my father," alleging that prison doctors had "entirely stopped treatment."

Background

Mladic commanded Bosnian Serb forces during the Bosnian war. On November 22, 2017, the ICTY sentenced him to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws and customs of war. One of the crimes ascribed to him was the July 1995 massacre of approximately 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in the eastern Srebrenica region. He evaded international justice for nearly 16 years before his arrest in Serbia in May 2011 and subsequent extradition to The Hague. The verdict was confirmed on appeal in 2021.

Reactions

An association of mothers who lost their sons in Srebrenica has denounced the repeated calls for Mladic's release as "provocations," and said that if he were freed it would be "a huge injustice."