The legal team and family of the finally convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic are considering possible legal and medical steps after doctors in The Hague detention center assessed that he has only a few months left to live – confirmed his son Darko Mladic.
As he stated, three weeks ago he visited his father in the detention hospital in The Hague and personally spoke with two doctors who, according to him, assessed that Mladic‘s health condition is terminal.
“They told me that he is basically dying there and that they are only keeping him alive, and that he probably won’t live to see the end of this year,” said Darko Mladic.
Because of that, he adds, the family and the legal team are considering what measures they can take, and the lawyers will soon come out with a concrete proposal.
“Our Serbian doctors also share the opinion that, with this continuation of treatment, he has very little chance of surviving until the end of the year, so we are already taking certain steps,” said Mladic‘s son.
He also emphasized that he did not communicate with the representatives of the Tribunal, but exclusively with the doctors of the detention hospital, who believe that he has been provided with the best possible care, but still maintain a very serious prognosis.
According to his son, Mladic is mostly bedridden, occasionally he can be transferred to a wheelchair, but only briefly. On Friday, he says, they spoke on the phone, and Mladic sounded somewhat better on that occasion, although sometimes he is unable to speak.
It should be recalled that Ratko Mladic has been in the detention hospital in The Hague since April 2023. His family and lawyers have repeatedly requested that he be allowed treatment in freedom due to his deteriorating health condition, but all these requests have so far been rejected.
Mladic suffers from a number of serious health problems, including neurological, cardiovascular, and urological issues. In January 2023, he underwent surgery in a Dutch hospital, where a pacemaker was implanted, and in the meantime, his kidneys have failed.
Ratko Mladic, former commander of the so-called Army of the Republika Srpska (VRS), was sentenced in 2021 to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws of war during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)from 1992 to 1995.
Under his command, the VRS forces, according to verdicts of the Hague Tribunal, kept Sarajevo under siege for three years, while cities such as Foca, Prijedor, and Visegrad were ethnically cleansed of non-Serb populations.
