Mladic lawyer implies former military chief not fit for court appeal
A lawyer for Ratko Ml adic has told a UN court that the former Bosnian Serb military chief may not be mentally fit to take part in an appeal hearing against his convictions for crimes including genocide committed throughout the 1992-95 Bosnian War.
“I am unable to meaningfully gain instruction from Mr Ml adic,n or be assured that he is able to meaningfully participate and follow” the proceedings, lawyer Dragan Ivetic told the hearing that was held partially by video conference because of coronavirus measures.
He said the two-day hearing should not proceed without an analysis of 77-year-old Mladic’s fitness to participate.
During a hearing last month, Mladic’s legal team warned that the Bosnian Serb former military commander could be suffering from early stage dementia.
“It is a denial of due process to sentence or proceed criminally against someone who is incompetent to stand trial,” Mr Ivetic said.
The hearing proceeded despite Mr Ivetic’s objections. Mladic was in court and initially wore a face mask, before pushing it below his chin and then removing it altogether.
Lawyers for Ml adic have repeatedly complained about his ill health, but in a written ruling before the hearing, judges said that the lawyers had not “substantiated that Mladic is unable to communicate, consult with his counsel, and/or understand the essentials of proceedings”.
Mladic was convicted by a UN war crimes tribunal in 2017 and sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding crimes by Bosnian Serb forces throughout the war that left 100,000 dead, an overwhelming majority of them Bosnian Muslim civilians.
The Us-brokered 1995 peace deal for Bosnia split the country along ethnic lines into two highly autonomous partsthe Serb-run Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-croat Federation.
Ml adic is asking the UN appeals mechanism to overturn all his convictions and acquit him or order a retrial.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are appealing against Mladic’s acquittal on a second count of genocide related to “ethnic cleansing” campaigns to drive Muslims and Croats out of territory claimed by Serbs in Bosnia.
He evaded justice for nearly 16 years after his indictment in July 1995 until he was arrested in Serbia in May 2011 and transferred to The Hague to stand trial.
His former political master, R adovan Karadzic, was also convicted of crimes including genocide for overseeing atrocities by Bosnian Se rb forces during the war.
Mladic’s appeal was rejected almost in its entirety and judges raised his sentence from 40 years to life imprisonment.