Attorneys for the “Butcher of Bosnia” have pleaded for his release from prison after about 15 years behind bars, saying the notorious war criminal is already on his death bed after a stroke.
Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995, which claimed about 100,000 lives.
Mladic, 84, was found responsible for the massacre of 8,000 Muslim boys and men in 1995 — the largest genocide in Europe since World War II.
He was on the run for 16 years until Serbian special police forces arrested him in May 2011. A UN tribunal sentenced him to life in The Hague in 2017, and the decision was upheld during a 2021 appeal.
On Thursday, Mladic’s attorneys submitted an “urgent defiance motion” to a UN court, seeking his “provisional or early release,” claiming he has been “fully wheelchair-bound and/or bedbound for a long time now.”
They also said Mladic suffered a severe neurological medical episode that left him unable to speak, and had made it nearly impossible for him to swallow.
Recent medical examinations confirmed he is in a “state of advanced, irreversible medical decline,” the lawyers claimed.
Mladic’s son Darko Mladic told Bosnian Serb public television his dad had a stroke about two weeks before the motion was filed.
Doctors who assessed his health allegedly said Mladic’s risk of death is “imminent,” so his lawyers want him moved to a hospital or hospice facility where Serbian is spoken, per the document.
But Bosnian groups who represent the victims and survivors of the war have fiercely protested any effort to let Mladic leave the Dutch prison.
They warned the court he has repeatedly tried to be freed, and slammed the medical pleas as a more of a “legal tactic” than a humanitarian request.
Mladic’s lawyers unsuccessfully argued for his release in July and again in November, for him to attend a relative’s memorial service, per the BBC.
Judge Graciela Gatti Santana said she has asked medical experts to examine Mladic’s health and assess his options for further treatment, the outlet reported.
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