The President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), Graciela Gatti Santana, rejected the appeal of Ratko Mladic, sentenced to life imprisonment for the genocide in Srebrenica and other crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), submitted against the decision by which his previously denied seven-day leave to visit the grave of a close family member was upheld.
As stated in the decision, Mladic filed an appeal on November 20th in which he requests that the earlier decision denying his request for temporary release for seven days be reconsidered and that President Gatti Santana approve the request.
In the appeal, Mladic stated that the decision was manifestly unreasonable and that it contained errors in the reasoning that constitute an injustice because the cited risks lead to an incorrect factual conclusion, given that the Republic of Serbia and the Republika Srpska (RS) provided guarantees that were not available at the time the decision was made. According to the decision, Mladic considered that evidence was neglected, namely reports about his limited independent mobility, which affects the assessment of the risk of escape.
“Considering that in the decision of November 11th I stated that Mladic sought and expected to receive guarantees from the authorities of Serbia and the RS, and that I did not deem it necessary to wait for such guarantees because they would not affect my assessment. State guarantees by themselves are not decisive in temporary release proceedings,” stated IRMCT President Gatti Santana.
She stated that his fugitive status prior to arrest, as well as the decisions of the Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the Appeals Chamber not to approve his temporary release, including the most recent decision from 2019, were relevant for her assessment of the request in accordance with established judicial practice.
“Mladic has not succeeded in justifying the reconsideration of the November 11th, 2025 decision; for the stated reasons, I reject the request,” concluded Gatti Santana.
In his request at the beginning of November, Mladic sought temporary release on compassionate grounds in order to visit the grave and attend the commemoration of a close family member who had recently passed away. He stated that he considers attending the commemoration a humanitarian circumstance, so that the leave would not be offensive to victims and witnesses, and that there is no risk of escape given his physical condition.
Mladic, former commander of the Army of the RS (VRS), was finally sentenced in June 2021 to life imprisonment for the genocide in Srebrenica, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo, and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.
