Russia expresses willingness to take Mladic for medical treatment
Russia sent a message to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) confirming its willingness to accept Ratko Mladić, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb forces, for medical treatment. This was reported by TASS on Wednesday, March 22nd.
“The contents of the message are confidential and meant for the ICTY. But what’s mentioned in the petition (sent to Mladić’s defense team in the ICTY on March 20th) is true,” stated Victoria Goncharova in an interview with the head of a legal agency in the Russian Embassy in the Netherlands.
The diplomat specified that the message confirms Russia’s promise to accept Mladić, provide him with general treatment, and return him in accordance with whatever conditions are stipulated by the tribunal.
Earlier in the day, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary to the Russian president, refrained from commenting on the situation. He noted, however, that the Kremlin knows about the request to take Mladić for treatment.
On March 21 the Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported that Mladić’s defense team had requested that he be temporarily released from detention in The Hague and allowed to go to Russia for treatment. It was reported that the general needs urgent care, and since there has been a break in the trial, there is no need for the defendant to remain in The Hague.
The 74-year-old Mladić is accused of war crimes and involvement in the genocide of the Muslim population in Bosnia. He is specifically charged with arranging the massacre of almost eight thousand people who lived in the town of Srebrenica. He is also accused of being responsible for the Siege of Sarajevo, in which ten thousand people were killed. Mladić denies the charges.
In March 2016, Radovan Karadžić, Mladić’s associate and the leader of the Republika Srpska, was sentenced to 40 years in prison.