According to the British newspaper The Guardian, on August 27 local time, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals under the United Nations announced that Ratko Mladić, former commander of the Bosnian Serb army, passed away in The Hague, Netherlands, at the age of 84.
The statement says that Mladic passed away in a hospital in The Hague earlier that day. A judge has ordered a thorough investigation into the details of his death. Prior to his death, Mladic suffered from multiple strokes while serving time in The Hague prison, and his health was not good.
During the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, Mladić led the forces of the Bosnian Serb Republic. In May 2011, Mladić was arrested in Serbia and subsequently extradited to The Hague, Netherlands. In November 2017, the then United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Mladić to life imprisonment for crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed during the Bosnian War.
Mladić is accused of committing genocide in the Srebrenica tragedy in Bosnia and Herzegovina in July 1995. He directed Bosnian Serb forces to massacre nearly 8,000 Muslim men and underage boys. He is also accused of launching armed attacks on civilians during the siege of Bosnia’s capital Sarajevo, resulting in the death of many civilians.
In addition, Mladić is accused of kidnapping soldiers of the United Nations peacekeeping forces during the Bosnian War, with the intention of preventing the operations of the United Nations peacekeeping forces and NATO air strikes. He was convicted of kidnapping.
File photo: December 1995, Ratko Mladić speaking. Associated Press
During the trial, Mladić refused to plead guilty, insisting that his actions were aimed at ‘defending the people and the country’. After the judgment was issued by the Tribunal, Mladić immediately filed an appeal.
After the closure of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in December 2017, the appeal case was transferred to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. In June 2021, that mechanism rejected Miladinj's appeal, and a final judgment of life imprisonment was imposed on Miladinj.
Since then, Mladić has been serving time in a heavily guarded prison in The Hague. Mladić’s son, Dalko, revealed that Mladić’s health condition in prison continued to deteriorate. The Serbian government requested that Mladić be released and sent back to Serbia to spend the rest of his life there, but this request was rejected by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.
