THE LAWYER for Ratko Mladic has appealed against his extradition to the United Nations war crimes court at The Hague, amid disputes about his mental and physical condition and the emergence of more details about his life in hiding and his long-awaited arrest.
Milos Saljic posted the appeal late yesterday afternoon, as a legal deadline loomed, in an effort to delay a final extradition ruling for as long as possible.
He insisted that Mladic (69), a former Bosnian-Serb general who for 16 years has evaded genocide charges relating to the 1992-95 Bosnian war, is too frail and psychologically unstable to face a trial that would centre on the brutal siege of Sarajevo and massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.
“I don’t think the trial will take place,” Mr Saljic said yesterday.
“He will not live to the start of the trial. I will make the appeal this afternoon to prolong things a little bit.
“Our impression is that he is an alarming state and needs to be examined by an independent team of experts,” Mr Saljic added.
He previously claimed his client kept asking to visit the grave of his daughter Ana or to have her coffin brought to him in his Belgrade prison cell. She committed suicide with one of Mladic’s guns in 1994.
A Serb court ruled on Friday that Mladic was fit enough to be deported despite having health difficulties. “I have seen Mladic and I believe he is fit for trial . . . We will now focus on uncovering the entire network of his helpers,” said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia’s chief war crimes prosecutor.
“The problems he has . . . are normal for people of his age who do not pay attention to their health. This is a defence strategy to delay the procedure. They are trying to present him as demented.
“He clearly has health problems but this is not a reason for him not to go to The Hague,” Mr Vukcevic added. Officials at Serbia’s justice ministry said that if Mladic’s appeal was received today but rejected, he could be extradited any time between this evening and Thursday.
A friend of Mladic revealed yesterday that he had lived openly at home in Belgrade until 2002, when international pressure on Serbia began to finally make life more difficult for him.
“He was a very engaged person throughout that time,” said Aleksandar Mihailovic, who lived a few houses away from Mladic in Belgrade. “He loved songs, rakia, eating – he was a very normal person. Everybody came by to pay their respects . . . He was not the type of person to sit around and do nothing.”
Mladic was arrested last Thursday at his cousin’s house in Lazarevo, near Serbia’s border with Romania. “Congratulations, guys, you found the one you’ve been looking for . . . It is over,” Mladic told the police, according to interior minister Ivica Dacic, before offering the officers ham, cheese and home-made brandy.
