Former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic dies in UN detention at 84

Death in custody in The Hague

Ratko Mladic, the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army serving a life sentence for genocide and war crimes, died on Thursday, 27 August 2026, at age 84. Serbian television broadcasters RTS and Informer TV reported his death at the United Nations detention centre in The Hague, with family members and UN officials confirming the report. Mladic spent his final two years in a prison hospital, bedridden or using a wheelchair after suffering multiple strokes. Earlier in August 2026, a UN medical report concluded that his death could occur at any moment. The Serbian government, including President Aleksandar Vucic and Justice Minister Nenad Vujic, submitted formal requests to allow Mladic to return to Serbia for medical treatment, but international judges denied the petitions.

Medical decline and rejected release petitions

Defense attorneys filed urgent motions in April and May seeking early release on humanitarian grounds, citing a sharp decline in his condition following a medical incident during a video call with his son Darko. The incident left the former general unable to speak coherently with his family or medical staff. His legal team argued that the detention hospital could no longer provide the diagnostic and palliative care necessary to ease his suffering and ensure a dignified death. Judges at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals rejected the requests, determining that Mladic received adequate medical care and that release was not in the interests of justice. Prison authorities instead permitted expanded visitation rights for his relatives.

Wartime operations and atrocities in Bosnia

Mladic rose to head the Army of Republika Srpska in 1992 after commanding Yugoslav People's Army units in Croatia. Within six months, his forces captured approximately 70% of Bosnian territory during a conflict that left roughly 100,000 people dead and displaced over two million others. Under his command, Bosnian Serb forces besieged Sarajevo for more than 40 months between 1992 and 1996, subjecting the city to daily artillery shelling and sniper fire that killed between 10,000 and 12,000 people, including more than 1,600 children. In July 1995, his troops overran the UN-designated safe area in Srebrenica, killing between 8,000 and 8,300 Bosniak men and boys over several days. The soldiers buried the victims in mass graves, later unearthing and moving corpses to remote mountain areas to conceal the killings.

Capture, trial, and tribunal convictions

After the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, Mladic went into hiding in 1996 and lived in Belgrade before vanishing, evading arrest for 16 years. Serbian security forces arrested him on 26 May 2011 in a village in northern Serbia and extradited him to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. During a 2014 hearing before the tribunal, Mladic refused to accept the proceedings.

I do not recognise this court.

On 22 November 2017, the tribunal convicted Mladic on 10 of 11 counts, sentencing him to life imprisonment for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity alongside political leaders Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic. When the sentence was read, Mladic shouted in protest at the judges.

This is all lies, you are all liars!

The appeals chamber upheld the life sentence in June 2021, and Mladic remained in UN detention until his death.