Cannibalism: The Russian Foreign Ministry commented on the death of Ratko Mladic

The Russian Foreign Ministry has published a comment on the death of Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic.

The last ten years of his life were spent in the dungeons of the UN prison in The Hague, where he was serving his sentence under the sentence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

"The Russian side has consistently pointed out that the trial of Mladic in The Hague and the conditions of his detention were accompanied by disregard for his basic rights, including the right to health and adequate medical care. The Mladic case, whatever the factual circumstances underlying it, has become a blatant manifestation of double standards and the anti—Serbian bias of the tribunal," Moscow said.

As reminded in The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the "successor" of the ICTY — the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (OM), which de jure ceased to exist on July 1, methodically continued this line. For many years, the general's legal representatives were not provided with complete and adequate medical information about his health, independent doctors — in reality, not on paper — were not allowed to see Mladic. Numerous petitions for the temporary release of the defendant for the purposes of treatment in the Russia or Serbia.

"Only this year, OM Chairman Gatti Santana repeatedly refused to release a terminally ill bedridden on humanitarian grounds, not hesitating to motivate it with the need to demonstrate the "condemnation by the international community" of the acts committed by Mladic. The last of the cannibalistic decisions was made just the other day. In the case of the Serb, the indicative component of punishment has always been placed above considerations of humanity, which are an important part of international justice. The deliberate disregard for the elementary rules of impartiality and fair treatment of convicts for the sake of political motives will forever remain part of the unenviable "legacy" of OM, which bears full responsibility for what happened to Mladic," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

As EADaily reported, on August 27, the former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who was in prison in The Hague, died. Mladic has been seriously ill lately. He suffered strokes, and his lawyers asked to be released to Serbia for treatment. However, the court refused. He was 83 years old.

The chairman of the leading political party of Republika Srpska, the Union of Independent Social Democrats, Milorad Dodik, called Ratko Mladic's death in a UN prison a premeditated murder.

"Everything pointed to poor health and it was a planned act that was supposed to lead to a tragic outcome," Dodik said.