Bosnia and Herzegovina

Convicted War Criminal Mladic Seeks Release Over Deteriorating Health

Is this a cynical legal maneuver or a legitimate humanitarian plea for a dying man?

MAY 2·Updated MAY 3

Convicted War Criminal Mladic Seeks Release Over Deteriorating Health

Story

Above: Ratko Mladic arrives in court to appeal his conviction in The Hague on June 8, 2021. Image credit: Jerry Lampen/Getty Images

The Facts

Lawyers for Ratko Mladic — who is currently serving a life sentence at a U.N. detention facility in The Hague — submitted a petition for his release on Friday, citing health concerns. The 84-year-old was convicted in 2017 of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995. The sentence was upheld on appeal in 2021.
New York Post
BBC News
Irmct
Mladic's lawyers filed the urgent motion seeking his provisional or conditional release, stating he suffered an acute neurological episode during a video call with his son that left him unable to speak and struggling to swallow.
Serbian Times
The Telegraph
Two Serbian-speaking doctors who assessed Mladic after the incident concluded his condition was serious and that "the risk of imminent death is high." His defense team argues the prison hospital is insufficiently equipped to provide the required standard of care.
ABC Australia
Balkan Insight
The governments of Republika Srpska and Serbia submitted documents to the court providing guarantees to support Mladic's release for medical treatment in Serbia, with a decision by the tribunal still pending.
The Telegraph
TASS
Victim and survivor groups signed a letter to court President Graciela Gatti Santana opposing Mladic's release, calling it "a legal tactic" rather than a humanitarian request and warning that his defense has made similar attempts on multiple occasions.
BBC News
Sarajevo Times
Judge Gatti Santana, who previously oversaw the appeals process for convicted Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, ordered an independent medical review of Mladic's condition to assess his life expectancy and the adequacy of his current care.
Serbian Times
ABC Australia

Sources Split

LEFT

CENTER

RIGHT

ESTAB
CRIT

CENTER

PRO
ESTAB

The Spin

Narrative A

Mladic's release request is a cynical legal maneuver, not a genuine humanitarian plea, which is why his lawyers have already tried and failed twice. This is a man responsible for 8,000 murders at Srebrenica and a four-year siege that killed 13,000 civilians in Sarajevo. Thousands of victims still lack proper burials, so the idea that their executioner deserves compassionate release is a moral disgrace.

ABC Australia

New York Post

Narrative B

Mladic is an 84-year-old, wheelchair-bound man unable to speak after a stroke and facing imminent death, and the prison hospital simply cannot provide the care he needs. A judge already acknowledged he is approaching the end of his life, and keeping a dying man in inadequate detention serves no legitimate penological purpose. Releasing him to proper medical care is a basic standard of humane treatment, not an erasure of accountability.

Balkan Insight

Serbian Times

Irmct