The Hague deprived Mladic medication after his family refused euthanasia — ambassador

BELGRADE, August 31. /TASS/. A court in The Hague asked the relatives of former Bosnian Serb Army commander General Ratko Mladic to consent to his euthanasia, and after they refused, the general was denied medication, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandar Vranes told TASS.

"Just as I doubt the veracity of any information presented by the Hague Tribunal, I also doubt their good intentions in truthfully and objectively conveying the details of General Mladic’s death to the public. Even before his father’s death, the general’s son, Darko, publicly spoke about the conditions under which the Hague Tribunal was holding the terminally ill general. He mentioned a scandalous proposal from The Hague in which the family was asked to agree to euthanasia as an option. When the family refused, they noticed that Mladic was being deprived of medication for his chronic illnesses and instead given the narcotic analgesic fentanyl without proper medical supervision. Such treatment can be viewed as a means of hastening his death, or, in other words, as a form of murder," the ambassador emphasized.

Mladic died in a UN prison in The Hague on August 27. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia repeatedly rejected the general’s defense team’s requests for early release on health grounds. Politician Milorad Dodik called his death in custody a deliberate murder. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated that the court in The Hague deliberately prevented Mladic from dying in Serbia, and emphasized that Belgrade is ready to organize a dignified funeral for the general if his family desires it.