Court rules Mladic fit enough for trial
Source: Agencies |
May 28, 2011, Saturday
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BOSNIAN Serb military commander Ratko Mladic can be extradited to a United Nations tribunal on war-crimes charges despite defense claims he is too sick to face trial, a Belgrade court ruled yesterday.
A defense lawyer said Mladic would appeal the decision on Monday. Mladic could be extradited within hours if that appeal is rejected.
If he is extradited, he will argue that he's innocent of war crimes charges that include orchestrating some of the worst atrocities of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, his son indicated after visiting Mladic in jail. "His stand is that he's not guilty of what he's being accused of," Darko Mladic told reporters outside the Belgrade court.
The UN tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, is seeking to try Mladic on charges that include directing the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and involvement in the relentless four-year siege of Sarajevo.
Court spokeswoman Maja Kovacevic said Mladic refused to accept the Hague indictment during yesterday's extradition hearing.
"He has a series of chronic ailments, but he's capable of following the trial," Kovacevic told reporters.
His son said Mladic, 69, suffered two strokes while on the run for 16 years, has a partially paralyzed right hand and can barely speak.
Defense lawyer Milos Saljic said Mladic "jumped from subject to subject, and spoke inconsistently," during the hearing. He said Mladic needed medical care and "should not be moved in such a state."
He demanded an "independent medical commission" examine Mladic.
Serbian war crimes prosecutors argued that the health issue appeared to be a tactic to delay Mladic's extradition, and a tribunal spokeswoman said from The Hague that it was capable of dealing with any health problems.
A police photo of Mladic showed him looking hollow-cheeked and shrunken after a decade and a half on the run, a far cry from the beefy commander accused of personally orchestrating some of the worst horrors of the Balkan wars.
The photo taken moments after his arrest in a tiny northern Serbian village shows a clean-shaven Mladic with thinning hair and wearing a navy blue baseball hat. He looks up with wide eyes, as if in surprise.
Deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said Mladic is taking a lot of medicine, but "responds very rationally to everything that is going on."
Mladic was arrested by intelligence agents in a raid before dawn on Thursday at a relative's house in a village in northern Serbia.
One of the world's most-wanted fugitives, Mladic was the top commander of the Bosnian Serb army during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, which killed more than 100,000 people and drove another 1.8 million from their homes.
A defense lawyer said Mladic would appeal the decision on Monday. Mladic could be extradited within hours if that appeal is rejected.
If he is extradited, he will argue that he's innocent of war crimes charges that include orchestrating some of the worst atrocities of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, his son indicated after visiting Mladic in jail. "His stand is that he's not guilty of what he's being accused of," Darko Mladic told reporters outside the Belgrade court.
The UN tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, is seeking to try Mladic on charges that include directing the slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, and involvement in the relentless four-year siege of Sarajevo.
Court spokeswoman Maja Kovacevic said Mladic refused to accept the Hague indictment during yesterday's extradition hearing.
"He has a series of chronic ailments, but he's capable of following the trial," Kovacevic told reporters.
His son said Mladic, 69, suffered two strokes while on the run for 16 years, has a partially paralyzed right hand and can barely speak.
Defense lawyer Milos Saljic said Mladic "jumped from subject to subject, and spoke inconsistently," during the hearing. He said Mladic needed medical care and "should not be moved in such a state."
He demanded an "independent medical commission" examine Mladic.
Serbian war crimes prosecutors argued that the health issue appeared to be a tactic to delay Mladic's extradition, and a tribunal spokeswoman said from The Hague that it was capable of dealing with any health problems.
A police photo of Mladic showed him looking hollow-cheeked and shrunken after a decade and a half on the run, a far cry from the beefy commander accused of personally orchestrating some of the worst horrors of the Balkan wars.
The photo taken moments after his arrest in a tiny northern Serbian village shows a clean-shaven Mladic with thinning hair and wearing a navy blue baseball hat. He looks up with wide eyes, as if in surprise.
Deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said Mladic is taking a lot of medicine, but "responds very rationally to everything that is going on."
Mladic was arrested by intelligence agents in a raid before dawn on Thursday at a relative's house in a village in northern Serbia.
One of the world's most-wanted fugitives, Mladic was the top commander of the Bosnian Serb army during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, which killed more than 100,000 people and drove another 1.8 million from their homes.
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