Former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladić, who was convicted of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, has died at the age of 84 while serving a life sentence in The Hague.
Mladić was a leading commander of Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War. He was held responsible for major atrocities, including the prolonged siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, in which more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys were killed.
He remained a fugitive for 16 years before being arrested in Serbia in 2011 and transferred to The Hague. In 2017, the UN tribunal convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment. His final appeal was rejected in 2021, leaving the life sentence in place.
Mladić spent his final years in a UN detention facility in The Hague, where his health had reportedly deteriorated significantly. His lawyers had sought his release on humanitarian grounds earlier this year following serious health problems.
His death marks the end of the life of one of the most notorious figures of the Bosnian War and a major figure in the international prosecution of atrocities committed during the conflict.
