Trial of Ratko Mladić

The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić was a war crimes trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Netherlands, concerning crimes committed during the Bosnian War by Ratko Mladić in his role as a general in the Yugoslav People's Army and the Chief of Staff of the Army of Republika Srpska.

Proceedings began on 3 June 2011 with a listing of the charges against Mladić, which included violations of the laws or customs of war, genocide, and crimes against humanity particularly in connection with the Srebrenica massacre and Siege of Sarajevo.

The arrest was carried out by two dozen Serbian special police officers wearing black uniforms and masks, and sporting no insignia.

Upon surrendering two pistols he was carrying to the arresting police officers, Mladić was taken to Belgrade as part of the extradition process.

[4][5] After initial uncertainty as to the identity of the arrested man, then Serbian President Boris Tadić confirmed that it was Mladić at a press conference and announced that the process of extraditing him to the ICTY was under way.

His appearance reportedly showed he had "aged considerably", and one of his arms was paralyzed due to a series of strokes.

[7] Following his arrest, Mladić appeared before the Belgrade Higher Court to establish whether he was fit to be extradited to the Hague.

"[13] In Novi Sad, hundreds of demonstrators attempted to break into the headquarters of the ruling Democratic Party but were blocked by riot policemen, who injured two protesters.

In Lazarevo, residents expressed support for Mladić to the media, waved Serbian and Russian flags, put up a banner of support at the entrance, blocked the road with a trailer, chanted, stopped people from taking pictures of Mladić's house and told journalists to leave.

Demonstrators threw stones and bottles at police, broke traffic lights, overturned garbage cans, and set off firecrackers.

[17] Mladić's trial began on 3 June 2011 with an initial hearing to list the charges against him and ask him for a plea.

He was removed from the courtroom for continually interrupting the judge and appearing to attempt to communicate with the public gallery; Mladić expressed anger at being represented by an ICTY-appointed lawyer rather than his chosen lawyer, military attorney Milos Saljic, and Russian jurist Alexander Mezyayev.

Mladić could then be heard shouting obscenities, calling the court liars and, referring to NATO, "You [sic] make wars all around the world."

[1] Mladić has the right to an appeal of the judgement, which would be heard by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MITC).

[31] On September 3, 2020, the five judge panel representing the MITC's Appeals Chamber voted 4–1 to reject Mladic's request for future hospitalization outside his Hague detention center.