The Hague Court again rejects Mladic's request for release from prison on health grounds

2026-05-14 22:48:11, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Hague Court again rejects Mladic's request for release from prison on

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (formerly The Hague Tribunal) has once again rejected Ratko Mladic's request for temporary release from prison on health grounds, where he is serving a sentence for war crimes.

Mladic, former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska - the Bosnian Serb entity - was sentenced in 2021 to life imprisonment for genocide and war crimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The mechanism said on Thursday that independent medical experts have concluded that the United Nations Detention Unit Medical Service and the prison hospital are adequately monitoring and treating Mladic's health condition.

"They have not encountered a lack of proper care or treatment that would justify his release," the Mechanism's announcement said.

The mechanism added that Mladic has been permanently housed in a newly built prison hospital facility, which is equipped to provide multidisciplinary care for prisoners with complex medical problems.

"Mladic is being placed in a new, state-of-the-art prison hospital, with constant monitoring and rapid transfers to civilian hospitals as needed," he said.

The prisoner is said to have appropriate palliative care, assistance with daily activities, as well as interpreters and staff who speak his language.

His defense requested temporary release due to, as stated, his seriously impaired health and need for hospital treatment.

Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic visited him on April 20 and asked The Hague to allow Mladic to receive medical treatment in freedom.

This is the second time that his request for release from prison on health grounds has been denied.

In June 2025, Mladic's defense requested temporary or early release based on his suspected terminal diagnosis and short life expectancy.

The mechanism rejected the request on the grounds that Mladic was receiving full medical care.

Mladic was finally convicted in The Hague on June 8, 2021, for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

He has been in detention under the supervision of the International Mechanism since his arrest in 2011 in Serbia.

The Hague tribunal's verdict found him guilty of genocide against around 8,000 Bosniaks in Srebrenica, a UN-protected area, in the summer of 1995, for the persecution and forcible transfer of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia, the terrorization of civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, and the holding of UN peacekeepers hostage during the NATO bombing in 1995.

He was convicted of 10 of the 11 counts of the indictment for war crimes and crimes against humanity./REL