Mladic remains airlifted to Belgrade in government plane

The FoNet news agency reported that Mladic’s son and granddaughter were in the aircraft which brought the coffin from the Hague to the Serbian capital. It said that Darko Mladic and his daughter Anastasija were accompanied on the flight by Justice Minister Nenad Vujic.

The coffin was covered with the flags of Serbia and the Republika Srpska entity and was carried off the aircraft by six members of the Serbian Armed Forces and put onto a civilian van which carried it to the Military Medical Academy (VMA) for an autopsy. Doctors at the VMA told reporters that the results of the autopsy would be handed to the family and relevant authorities.

Mladic supporters draped banners with messages of support on bridges over the highway through Belgrade that the van with his body took from the airport to the VMA.

Police and Gendarmerie troopers were deployed on the road in front of the VMA, many of them saluting the van. A crew from the pro-regime Informer TV followed the column to the VMA.

Ratko Mladic died at the detention center hospital in Scheveningen on August 27 at the age of 84. He was sentenced to life in prison by the UN war crimes tribunal for the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes.

Pro-regime tabloids said that Mladic would be buried on Monday, September 7 at the Topcider cemetery where his daughter Ana, who committed suicide in the 1990s is buried. The tabloids said the body would lie in state at the St Luke church near the cemetery from early morning on the day of the funeral. The Alo tabloid said a commemoration would be held at the Army House in central Belgrade on September 5.