Medical Release Urgently Sought for Mladic: Can Justice Overcome Politics?

A group of defence lawyers for Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb general serving a life sentence for his role in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, are urgently requesting his release to Serbia on medical grounds. In a motion filed on the U.N. court’s website, they are seeking permission from judges to allow the elderly general to seek treatment for an undisclosed but potentially life-threatening condition.

Mladic, who is 82 years old and has experienced cognitive impairments, has been hospitalized at least twice this year and is residing in the U.N. detention center in The Hague since his final conviction on appeal in 2021. Known as the “butcher of the Balkans”, he led Bosnian Serb forces during Bosnia’s war and was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. These crimes included terrorizing the civilian population of Sarajevo during a siege and massacring more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.

Mladic’s lawyers argue that he can receive specialized medical treatment in Serbia for his illness and that being in the country would eliminate language barriers that currently hinder communication with healthcare providers. The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), which oversees Mladic’s case, has not yet indicated when they will make a decision on the release application.