Convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Mladić dies aged 84

Convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladić has passed away at the age of 84 while incarcerated in a UN prison in The Hague. Mladić was sentenced to life in prison in 2017 for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity committed during the Yugoslav wars of 1992-1995. After the Bosnian conflict, he went into hiding for 16 years before being apprehended in rural Serbia in 2011 and subsequently put on trial in The Hague.

The verdict was confirmed on appeal in 2021. Mladić, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia," was provided with palliative care at the UN detention facility, where he ultimately succumbed to his ailments. The news of his demise was initially reported by Serbian media and subsequently confirmed by a UN official. In May, a UN court at The Hague denied his release from prison due to his advanced age, acknowledging that he was receiving adequate and compassionate treatment.

Mladić had been in custody at the UN detention facility since 2011. As the commander of Bosnian Serb forces in the 1990s, he orchestrated ethnic cleansing in Bosnia-Herzegovina, besieged Sarajevo resulting in over 10,000 deaths, and perpetrated the massacre of 8,000 men and boys during the Srebrenica genocide.