Mladic Remains in Hospital for Tests
Court adjourns trial temporarily after defendant is hospitalised as a precaution.
Mladic Remains in Hospital for Tests
Court adjourns trial temporarily after defendant is hospitalised as a precaution.
During a brief hearing at the Hague tribunal on July 13, the presiding judge said former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic was undergoing medical tests in hospital and was therefore unable to appear in court for his trial.
Mladic’s tests required him to remain in hospital for 24 hours, Judge Alphons Orie said. On July 12, the defendant’s trial at the Hague tribunal was abruptly halted when he reported feeling ill and was taken to the hospital as a “precaution”, the court said.
Because of the defendant’s absence, the chamber decided not to continue with the cross-examination of former United Nations official David Harland until July 16, provided the accused is available to attend court that day.
Harland was a civil affairs officer and political adviser to the commander of UNPROFOR, the UN Protection Force in Bosnia, from 1993 until the end of the war in 1995.
In court earlier this week, he said Mladic had made verbal threats to kill civilians in eastern Bosnia during 1993, though he said these remarks did not appear to amount to a coherent statement of plans. (See Witness Says Mladic Threatened to Kill Civilians.)
After Judge Orie made his announcement, Mladic’s lawyer Branko Lukic told reporters outside the tribunal that there had been initial concern that his client had suffered another stroke, but after undergoing two scans, it appeared that “everything is fine”.
Lukic said doctors now think Mladic, 70, might have a high blood sugar level, or high blood pressure.
While the lawyer expressed hope that the trial could continue on July 16, he said his team would ask for the court schedule to be changed to allow his client to get more rest. The trial currently runs for five days a week, with five-hour stretches each day.
Tribunal spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic declined to comment on the specifics of Mladic’s condition, but said there were currently no concerns that his health had taken “a turn for the worse”.
“He’s in the hospital to be examined, not to receive treatment,” she told reporters.
Mladic’s health has been an issue since he was arrested in Serbia in May 2011, after 16 years of evading capture. He reportedly suffered from more than one stroke prior to his arrest, and also came down with pneumonia in autumn 2011. During status conferences leading up to his trial, he complained of kidney stones and repeatedly made remarks about his ill health.
Judges ordered a full medical report on the accused last year and found that he was fit to stand trial.
Prosecutors allege that Mladic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb army from 1992 to 1996, is responsible for crimes of genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and forcible transfer which “contributed to achieving the objective of the permanent removal of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats from Bosnian Serb-claimed territory.”
He is also accused of planning and overseeing the 44-month siege of Sarajevo that left nearly 12,000 people dead, as well as the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre, during which more than 7,000 Bosnian-Muslim men and boys were killed.
Mladic has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.
Rachel Irwin is IWPR Senior Reporter in The Hague.
