Russia Working to Ensure Medical Care for Convicted Bosnian Serb Commander Mladic
Deputy Foreign Minister Grushko says efforts underway to help 83-year-old former commander serving life sentence at The Hague
Quick Look
- Russia is working to ensure former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, 83, has access to medical care and can see his family while serving a life sentence at The Hague, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said after talks in Banja Luka.
- Mladic was convicted in 2017 for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and his appeal was denied in June 2021.
- His family has complained he is denied proper medical assistance, and his son said in April 2026 that Mladic had a stroke.
AI-generated summary
Russia is making efforts to provide former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, 83, who is serving life in prison at The Hague, with medical assistance, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.
"We are doing everything we can to make his situation easier. To ensure that he has access to medical care, and that he can see his family. But, regrettably, those who are currently deciding about his fate are guided by absolutely different [considerations]," he said after talks with the leadership of the Republic of Srpska (one of the two constituent entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina) in Banja Luka.
Case around Mladic
Ratko Mladic had been on the run for nearly 16 years until he was arrested in Serbia in May 2011 and extradited to The Hague. On November 22, 2017, he was sentenced by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to life in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity and the violation of laws and customs of war. It took 530 days to review his case, which involved testimonies of 377 witnesses and almost 10,000 pieces of hard evidence being presented.
In March 2018, Mladic's lawyers appealed against the verdict to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT), which was mandated to perform the functions carried out previously by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (closed on December 31, 2017) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (closed on December 31, 2015).
The defense demanded all the mistakes made during the trial be corrected and Mladic be cleared of the ten counts he had been found guilty of before. The lawyers proposed to review the case anew as an alternative. The prosecution also filed an appeal, demanding Mladic be found guilty of the first charge: genocide in five municipalities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
On June 8, 2021, the chamber of appeals of The Hague tribunal upheld the life sentence for Ratko Mladic. On July 29, 2025, the IRMCT denied his appeal to be released due to health problems. His family has repeatedly complained that he is denied proper medical assistance at the tribunal's prison. On April 15, 2026, his son Darko said that he had had a stroke.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed the decision to uphold the life sentence for Mladic as a manifestation of the biasedness of international institutions mandated to investigate crimes in former Yugoslavia.
