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Former Bosnian Serb military commander and convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic has died in a prison hospital in The Hague, Serbian state broadcaster RTS reported.
Mladic, 84, had been serving a life sentence for genocide and war crimes committed during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.
RTS reported that Mladic died after suffering several strokes.
Mladic, dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia,” was convicted over his role in atrocities during the Bosnian war, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
Belgrade on Monday renewed a request for Mladic to be released on health grounds for treatment in Serbia, warning that his death “could come at any time.”
Serbia’s justice minister, Nenad Vujic, asked the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals to transfer Mladic to a military hospital in Belgrade, according to a statement.
Mladic’s family had previously sought his release, saying he was severely ill and had suffered a stroke in April.
The court rejected that request in May, saying Mladic had access to proper medical care in prison.
Mladic’s son, Darko Mladic, told Serbian media Friday that “this is a silent murder of my father,” alleging that prison doctors had “entirely stopped treatment.”
Mladic was arrested in Serbia in 2011 after years as one of the world’s most wanted fugitives.
He was found guilty in 2017 of genocide and war crimes committed during the Bosnian war.
The verdict against him was upheld on appeal in 2021.
One of the crimes ascribed to him was the July 1995 massacre of around 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in the eastern Srebrenica region.
An association of mothers who lost their sons in Srebrenica had denounced repeated calls for Mladic’s release as “provocations.”
The group said that freeing him would have been “a huge injustice.”
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