Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on July 29, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleThe UN court denied Ratko Mladic's release request, citing stable health conditions despite cognitive impairments. Mladic remains detained for war crimes.
By Stephanie van den Berg
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -A U.N. war crimes court on Tuesday denied an application by Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic, who is serving a life sentence for his role in the 1992-95 war in Bosnia, to be urgently released to Serbia on health grounds.
In a decision published on the court's website, the court said that while Mladic's health condition is precarious, it is stable and well managed at the U.N. detention centre in The Hague.
The specific medical conditions of the 83-year-old former general, convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, are redacted in court papers but he is known to suffer cognitive impairments and was hospitalised at least twice this year, according to earlier court hearings and documents.
"Uncontradicted medical opinions indicate that Mladic is nearing the end of his life, a fate that is human," the president of the court Graciela Gatti Santana, said in the ruling.
She added, however, that the former general does not have an acute terminal illness which could justify his release.
Mladic led Bosnian Serb forces during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, part of the bloody break up of Yugoslavia. He was convicted on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes including terrorising the civilian population of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo during a 43-month siege, and the killing of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys taken prisoner in the eastern town of Srebrenica in 1995.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg)
A life sentence is a prison term that lasts for the convicted person's entire life, typically for serious crimes such as murder or genocide.
Crimes against humanity are certain acts that are deliberately committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population.
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