Ratko Mladic: Serbia again seeks release for treatment

Serbia has renewed a request for Ratko Mladic, the convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal, to be released from prison in The Hague on health grounds and transferred to a Belgrade military hospital for treatment.

Serbian Justice Minister Nenad Vujic made the request to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, according to a statement. Belgrade warned that Mladic's death "could come at any time".

Mladic, 84, is serving a life sentence after being found guilty in 2017 of genocide and war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. His conviction was upheld on appeal in 2021.

His family had previously sought his release, saying he was severely ill and had suffered a stroke in April. The tribunal rejected that request in May, saying Mladic had access to proper medical care in prison.

Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, told Serbian media on Friday that the situation amounted to "a silent murder of my father" and alleged that prison doctors had "entirely stopped treatment".

An association of mothers who lost sons in Srebrenica denounced repeated calls for Mladic's release as "provocations" and said his release would be "a huge injustice".

One of the crimes ascribed to Mladic was the July 1995 massacre of about 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in the Srebrenica region.