BELGRADE, June 14. /TASS/. The condition of the ex-commander of Serbian army of Bosnia and Herzegovina Ratko Mladic has worsened, the General’s son Darko Mladic told TASS Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, I have no good news; his condition is rather bad and is getting worse by the minute. He is so physically weak he cannot even walk 20 meters without resting; he can no longer control his elementary actions, such as making food. There is a notable deterioration of cognitive functions, which we expected, because the doctors did not cure the consequences of his strokes. He has heightened sugar levels, which [the medics] don’t take under control, and it speeds up all these processes. He is getting weaker and weaker," Darko Mladic said.

On November 22, 2017, General Ratko Mladiv was handed a life sentence for charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and for breaching the laws and traditions of war by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He absconded from justice for almost 16 years, until he was arrested in Serbia in May 2011 and extradited to The Hague. 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 filed an appeal with the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) - a body, established to complete the work of the ICTY, which shut down in 2017, and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which shut down in 2015. The appeal hearings took place in The Hague in 2020. The defense demanded to fix the mistakes made during the Mladic’s process and to exonerate the general on all ten charges. The lawyers proposed to review the case anew as an alternative. The prosecution also filed an appeal, demanding to find Mladic 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.

During his imprisonment, Mladic suffered three strokes and a heart attack. According to the defense, he was not provided with adequate medical care in prison. According to the General’s son, the doctors treated his intense pain attacks with paracetamol. During the pandemic, Mladic was not allowed to see family or lawyers under pretext of Covid restrictions.