Defence lawyers for Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the bloody 1992-95 war in Bosnia, are seeking his urgent release to Serbia on health grounds.
\nAccording a motion published on the U.N. court\u2019s website on Monday, they are petitioning judges to release the elderly general for treatment of an unnamed but potentially life-threatening condition.
\nDescriptions of the 82-year-old\u2019s medical condition are redacted in the court papers but he has been known to suffer cognitive impairments and was hospitalised at least twice this year.
\nThe former general, nicknamed the butcher of the Balkans, resides in the U.N. detention centre in The Hague since his final conviction on appeal in 2021.
\nMladic led Bosnian Serb forces during Bosnia\u2019s 1992-95 war, part of the bloody break up of Yugoslavia. He was convicted on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes including terrorising the civilian population of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during a 43-month siege, and the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys taken prisoner in the eastern town of Srebrenica in 1995.
\nAccording to his lawyers, Mladic can get special treatment in Serbia for his undisclosed illness and a move to the country would remove language barriers which present communications difficulties.
\nIt is not clear when the judges of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), which deals with Mladic\u2019s case, will rule on the application.
\n(Reuters)prisoner. Bosnian Serb general, Ratko Mladic, release to Serbia, health grounds<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, currently serving a life sentence for his role in the Bosnian war, is being petitioned for urgent release to Serbia for medical treatment. The 82-year-old has an undisclosed potentially life-threatening condition and has suffered cognitive impairments. His lawyers argue that he can receive better treatment in Serbia and that the move would eliminate language barriers. The decision on his release is pending from the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1521,9067,1972,6557,9070,3894,1240,2795,7606,4543,932,3635,3929,5338,607,210,9073,187,591,1450,9068,864,678,9071,1354,9072,2920,2127,3984,4861,9069,293,4280,8568,6305,18],"class_list":["post-10856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-1521","tag-air-defense","tag-appeal","tag-application","tag-bosnian-serb-general","tag-charges","tag-clear","tag-cognitive-impairments","tag-communications","tag-conviction","tag-court","tag-crimes","tag-detention","tag-elderly","tag-genocide","tag-health","tag-health-grounds","tag-international","tag-lawyers","tag-medical-treatment","tag-mladic","tag-population","tag-prisoner","tag-ratko-mladic","tag-release","tag-release-to-serbia","tag-sentence","tag-special-treatment","tag-threatening","tag-treatment","tag-tserbia","tag-war","tag-war-crimes","tag-website","tag-who","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n