Ratko Mladić dies at 85 — former Army of Republika Srpska commander convicted of genocide
Serbian outlets report Mladić died aged 85; he had been in The Hague detention hospital under palliative care since 2024.
Serbian media report that Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska who was convicted by a court in The Hague, has died at the age of 85.
During the last years of his life Mladić suffered several strokes and from 2024 was held in the detention hospital in The Hague, where he received palliative care. The tribunal repeatedly denied requests to allow him temporary release to Serbia for medical treatment.
Charges, trial and sentence
Mladić was arrested in May 2011 in a village near Zrenjanin after 16 years in hiding, and his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) began soon afterwards.
The ICTY charged him with genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war for acts committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. In 2017 the court convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity.
The tribunal found him guilty of a range of crimes, including persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, forcible transfer, terrorising, unlawful attacks on civilians and taking hostages. Mladić consistently maintained that he had only defended his people and his country.
Photo: press material from the event
