Mladic in serious health condition at The Hague seeks Serbia's help

The defence team of former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic urged Belgrade authorities to provide guarantees that he will return to The Hague tribunal, if released temporarily to receive medical treatment in Serbia.

Lawyers and family of Ratko Mladic, who is being tried for genocide and war crimes, officially asked the Serbian government Tuesday to provide guarantees to The Hague tribunal that would allow the former Bosnian Serb Army commander to be provisionally released from prison to receive medical treatment.

“We expect the Government to provide guarantees within about ten days and then submit a new request for Mladic's release to the tribunal, along with guarantees and medical records,” one of Mladic's lawyers, Miodrag Stojanovic, told BIRN.

Mladic has had some serious health problems during his stay in prison and suffered two blows and a heart attack. His lawyers say his situation deteriorated even more in May of this year.

The Serbian government must offer assurances that it will turn it into detention so that its provisional release request can be approved.

Stojanovic said he doesn't see any reason why requests should be refused, as hearings are over and the Serbian government will pledge to return Mladic to The Hague.

However, he added, he was sceptical of the possibility of releasing his client.

Justice Minister in Serbia Nela Kubovic said Wednesday that his ministry has already launched the necessary procedures to enable the government to vote on granting guarantees for Mladic's provisional release.

Opposition MP and the chairman of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, Nenad Canak, called on the Serbian government not to support Mladic's release.

“Whatever guarantees for the provisional release of Ratko Mladic given by Serbian authorities would greatly damage Serbia's international position and our relations with neighbouring countries,” said Sunday, according to Beta news agency.

Mladic was denied release in May 2017 when he asked to receive medical treatment in Russia. The Hague prosecutors indicated there was a danger that he could step down before a verdict was made in his trial.

Nemanja Stjepanovic of the NGO Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade told BIRN that despite Serbia's guarantees, Mladic is likely to be refused again for early release.

There are many things against him, above all the fact that he escaped for many years and did not go voluntarily to The Hague. In such cases, The Hague usually does not provide temporary release,”, Stjepanovic said.

He also stressed that Mladic himself has given credit to medical staff at the UN tribunal and the Bronovo clinic in the Netherlands, where the Dutch royal family, which kept him alive, is treated.

He has been given the best possible medical care, which even ordinary Dutch citizens do not have,” said Stjepanovic.

Mladic was arrested in 2011 in the village of Lazarevo, near Zrenjanin, north of Serbia, after spending 16 years on the run.

He is now being tried in The Hague for genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia, which allegedly amounted to genocide in several municipalities, terrorising the Sarajevo population, and kidnapping UN peacekeepers.

Defence and prosecution gave the latest closing statements at his trial in December last year.

The decision is expected to be made in November.