The International Mechanism for Criminal Courts (IMCC) rejected Ratko Mladic’s request for conditional release or the ability to continue serving his life sentence in Serbia.

The President of the IMCC, Graciela Gatti Santana, stated that on April 26, 2024, the former commander of the Main Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) Ratko Mladic submitted a request for conditional release to Serbia for humanitarian reasons or, alternatively, to continue serving the rest of his sentence there. As reasons for this request, Mladic stated that his illness was not treated, that he would have better health care in Serbia, and that the language in his current prison represents a communication barrier, Detektor.ba reported.

Gatti Santana noted in the decision that the Mechanism’s statute stipulates that the prison sentence is to be served in a country with which the United Nations has written agreements and that Serbia would not be a viable option for executing the sentence imposed by the IMCC.

“Having served only approximately 13 years of his life sentence, Mladic has not yet reached the eligibility threshold for early release,” the decision states.

On June 8, 2021, the Mechanism issued a second-instance verdict confirming the life sentence of Ratko Mladic, former commander of the VRS, for the genocide in Srebrenica, persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, terrorizing the citizens of Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR soldiers hostage.

Mladic was acquitted for genocide in five municipalities – Prijedor, Sanski Most, Kotor-Varos, Foca and Vlasenica.