LAWYERS FOR BOSNIAN Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic, 84, serving a life sentence in The Hague, asked for his release Friday, saying he was seriously ill and close to death following a stroke.

The defence team behind the urgent motion asserted that Mladic, convicted of genocide nine years ago, is “in a state of advanced, irreversible medical decline resulting from a medical incident … and is approaching the end of his life”.

His lawyers hope to secure his provisional release to allow the former Bosnian Serb military commander’s transfer to Serbia for medical treatment, according to the motion dated April 30.

Mladic’s son Darko Mladic told Bosnian Serb public television April 15 he had received information on his father’s health via a UN-authorised doctor, who he said informed him his father had suffered “a silent (minor) stroke”.

A UN tribunal in 2017 sentenced Mladic to life imprisonment for genocide and war crimes during Bosnia’s 1990s war, which claimed an estimated 100,000 lives. The verdict was confirmed on appeal in 2021.

One of the crimes ascribed to him was the July 1995 massacre of approximately 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in the eastern Srebrenica region.

Mladic was arrested in Serbia in 2011.

Mladic’s defence counsel said he had suffered “an acute neurological/medical episode characterised by sudden total aphasia” or loss of the ability to speak and was having difficulty swallowing as evidenced from a video call with his son, which had led to his emergency hospitalisation.

“Doctors have offered reports that confirm the fact that Mr Mladic’s condition is serious, life-threatening … and such that it cannot be adequately treated in the hospital prison,” his defence team stated in the motion.

In late April, several associations representing Bosnian victims of the 1992-1995 war urged the international court not to authorise Mladic’s transfer to Serbia.