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United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals   

United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals 

 

The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić

Court International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, The Netherlands
Case number IT-09-92-T
Decision title The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić Public with Confidential Annex Judgement Issued on 22 November 2017
Parties
  • Office of the Prosecutor: Mr. Peter McCloskey; Mr. Alan Tieger; Mr. Milbert Shin.
  • Counsel for Ratko Mladić: Mr Branko Lukić; Mr Dragan Ivetić; Mr Miodrag Stojanović.
Categories Crimes against humanity, Genocide, War crimes
Keywords Bosnia and Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, war crimes, Bosnia and Herzegovina, crimes against humanity, genocide, ICTY, Srebrenica
Links
Other countries involved
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Summary

The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić case before the ICTY concerns the events which occurred from October 1991 to November 1995 in the former Republic of Yugoslavia. The conflicts in the former Republic of Yugoslavia have been estimated to be the cause of a death toll of approximately 100,000 people, leading to over 2,000,000 people being displaced. The present case was tried before the ICTY’s Trial Chamber I, and the victims of the crimes were the ethnic groups of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats residing in the targeted municipalities, U.N personnel, and residents of Sarajevo.  

At the time when these events occurred, Mr. Mladić was a Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) Main Staff in the territories of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), including Srebrenica. In his leadership position, Mr. Mladić took control of municipalities in the so-called Serbian Republic of BiH, mainly in the Northwestern and Eastern regions of BiH. In these municipalities, the Bosnian Serb Forces participated in a campaign of persecution to drive the non-Serb populations from these territories, aiming to create an ethnically pure Bosnian Serb State by territorially dividing BiH. 

Mr. Mladić was initially charged together with Mr. Karadžić; however, the judgement in the case of Mr. Mladić was delivered a year later than that of Mr. Karadžić. Mr. Mladić was indicted for 11 charges, 10 of which he was found guilty of, including several charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war, and one charge of genocide. The Chamber sentenced Mr. Mladić to life imprisonment.

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Procedural history

  1. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) issued initial indictment against Mr. Mladić and Mr. Karadžić: 25 July 1995.   

  1. An ICTY Trial Chamber issued international arrest warrants against Mr. Mladić and Mr. Karadžić: 11 July 1996.   

  1. The Tribunal announced the arrest of Mr. Mladić in Serbia: 26 May 2011.  

  1. Mr. Mladić was transferred to the Tribunal’s custody: 31 May 2011.  

  1. Mr. Mladić had his first initial appearance before the ICTY: 3 June 2011. 

  1. The Prosecution filed its fourth amended indictment which became the operative indictment:16 December 2011. 

  1. The ICTY’s Trial Chamber I dismissed Mr. Mladić’s motion for acquittal: 15 April 2014.  

  1. Trial Chamber I sentenced Mr. Mladić to life imprisonment: 22 November 2017.  

More details can be found here.  

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Related developments

The Appeals Chamber judgement in the case of Mr. Mladić can be accessed here. The appeals judgement was rendered on 8 June 2021. Mr. Mladić’s appeal concerned nine separate grounds of appeal: alleged violations of fair trial rights, alleged errors related to the overarching, Srebrenica, Sarajevo, and hostage-taking JCEs, alleged errors regarding modes of liability, alleged systematic unfairness or bias throughout the proceedings, and the sentencing. The prosecution on the other hand appealed on two grounds: the alleged errors in finding that the communities did not constitute a substantial part of the protected group (Ground 1), and alleged errors in finding that Mladić and other overarching JCE members did not possess “destructive intent” (Ground 2). The Appeals Chamber dismissed Mladić’s appeal on all grounds and similarly dismissed the appeal from the prosecution on both grounds.  

In 2024,Mr. Mladić’s defence team sought the release of Mr. Mladić to Serbia on the ground of urgent need to treat a life-threatening illness. Shortly afterwards, the plea for provisional release was rejected by the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. The underlying cause for this rejection was that the sentences that are issued by the Tribunal must be served in states which the United Nations has agreements with for that purpose, and Serbia is not one of these states. Secondly, at the time, Mr. Mladić had only served 13 years of his life sentence, which is not substantial enough to grant provisional release.

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Legally relevant facts

The case of The Prosecutor v. Ratko Mladić concerns numerous crimes perpetrated between October 1991 and November 1995 in several areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including Srebrenica. Between 12 May 1992 and 8 November 1996, Mr. Mladić held the position of Commander of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) Main Staff (paras. 2 and 23-32, Trial Judgement Volume I). In May 1992, Bosnian Serb Forces under the command of General Ratko Mladić took control of certain municipalities in BiH, where Bosnian Serb Forces participated in a campaign of persecution against non-Serb populations, involving deportation and forcible transfers. In November 1992, Mr. Mladić issued the Operational Directive 04 which reaffirmed the "strategic objectives" developed by Mr. Radovan Karadžić, the then President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of the Bosnian Serb Forces (VRS).

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Core legal questions

  1. How is the right to self-representation exercised, and is it absolute? 

  1. What are the key legal differences between intent to displace, and intent to destroy, in the scope of determining whether genocide has been committed? 

  1. How do Joint Criminal Enterprises operateas a tool to commit international crimes?  

  1. Does acquittal of one charge influence the severity of the sentence? 

  1. Does describing a Joint Criminal Enterprises as “overarching” have consequences for the application of the doctrine to the facts of the given case?  

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Specific legal rules and provisions

Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: 

  1. Article 23; 

  1. Article 24; 

ICTY Rules of Procedure and Evidence:   

  1. Rule 98 ter; 

  1. Rule 101; 

  1. Rule 103.  

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Court's holding and analysis

Mr. Mladić was indicted for multiple alleged counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws or customs of war through his participation in four Joint Criminal Enterprises (JCE) (a mode of group criminal liability at the ICTY). The relevant JCEs were found to consist of an “overarching JCE”, and three “smaller” JCEs. The overarching JCE had the aim to permanently remove Croats/Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other JCEs aimed, respectively, to spread terror in Sarajevo, eliminate Bosnian Muslims from Srebrenica, and engaged in taking U.N. personnel hostage.  

In the indictment, Mr. Mladić was charged with two counts of genocide (Counts 1 and 2), as well as persecution (Count 3), extermination (Count 4), murder (Count 5), deportation (Count 7), and inhumane acts (forcible transfer) (Count 8) as crimes against humanity. Additionally, Mr. Mladić was charged with four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war (Counts 6; 9-11) (paras. 3-12, Trial Judgement Volume I).  

The Trail Chamber acquitted Mr. Mladić of the charge of genocide under Count 1, as the intent was concluded to be to ‘ethnically cleanse’, not to destroy the groups in whole or in part (para. 4233, Trial Judgement Volume IV). The Trial Chamber found Mr. Mladić to be individually criminally responsible for the commission of crimes under counts 2-11 as part of the four JCEs.  

At sentencing, the prosecution submitted Mr. Mladić’s abuse of authority as the Commander of the VRS Main Staff and the special vulnerability of many of the victims as aggravating factors (paras. 5185 and 5186, Trial Judgement Volume IV). The defence argued that even if these aggravating factors were proven to exist, little weight should be attached to them (para. 5187, Trial Judgement Volume IV). The Trial Chamber, however, considered Mladić’s superior position and abuse of authority as key components to establishing his participation in the four JCEs, accepting this as an aggravating factor(para. 5166, Trial Judgement Volume IV).  

The defence submitted the following mitigating circumstances for consideration: benevolent treatment of, and assistance to, victims, good character, diminished mental capacity, poor physical health, and advanced age (para. 5195, Trial Judgement Volume IV). The Trial Chamber accepted that certain acts constituting benevolent treatment of, and assistance to victims, were indeed present, however they did not prevent the common objectives of the JCEs from being achieved, therefore this was not accepted as a mitigating circumstance (paras. 5196-5198, Trial Judgement Volume IV). Good character was found to have little gravity as a mitigating circumstance, considering the crimes Mr. Mladić was held to be responsible for (para. 5199, Trial Judgement Volume IV). The Trial Chamber also rejected diminished mental capacity and poor physical health as mitigating circumstances (paras. 5200-5203, Trial Judgement Volume IV). The Trial Chamber did however give consideration to Mr. Mladić’s age (para. 5204, Trial Judgement Volume IV).  

As a result of the ruling, Mr. Mladić was sentenced to life imprisonment (paras. 5214-5216, Trial Judgement Volume IV).  

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Further analysis

B Flanery, ‘The Last ICTY Trial: An Analysis of the Ratko Mladic Trial and the Struggle to Reach a Guilty Verdict for Perpetrators of Genocide’, Indon J. Int'l & Comp. L., 2020.  

I Vukušić,‘Later Rather Than Sooner: Time and Its Effects on the Karadžić and Mladić Trials’, International Criminal Law Review, 2022.  

K Askin, ‘The Trial of Ratko Mladic: a Gender Crimes Perspective’, Open Society Justice Initiative, 2012.  

R Murphy, ‘Mladic trial marks end of an era’, Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galway, 2021.  

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Instruments cited

  1. Statute of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia; 

  1. ICTY Rules of Procedure and Evidence; 

  1. The Geneva Conventions of 1949. 

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Related cases

The Prosecutor v. Radovan Karadžić (IT-95-5/18).  

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Additional materials

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ‘Trial Judgement Summary for Radko Mladić’, United Nations, 22 November 2017.   

M Milanovic, ‘Some Thoughts on the Mladic Judgment’, EJIL Talk, 27 November 2017.  

J Nilsson, ‘The Mladić Trial – the Last Case Before the ICTY’, International Crimes Database, September 2018.  

A Cole, ‘Case Watch: A Setback for the Prosecution of Ratko Mladic’, Open Society Justice Initiative, 18 October 2011.  

U Sherieff, ‘Justice and the Rule of Law in The Hague: The Trial of Ratko Mladić’, Rule of Law Education Centre, 27 January 2016.  

J Trahan, ‘Reflections on the Mladić Verdict: A High-Point for the ICTY’s Legacy and Perhaps Hope for Victims of Other Conflicts’, Opinio Juris, 26 November 2017.  

E Vulliami, ‘Ratko Mladić will die in jail. But go to Bosnia: you’ll see that he won’, The Guardian, 22 November 2017.  

Human Rights Watch, ‘ICTY: Q&A on the Case against Ratko Mladic’, Human Rights Watch, 31 May 2011.  

M Z Rosensaft, ‘Ratko Mladić’s Genocide Conviction, and Why it Matters’, Tablet, 22 November 2017.

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Social media links

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ‘Mladic Trial Judgement Highlights’, YouTube, 22 November 2017.  

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ‘Mladić Trial Judgement Part I’, YouTube, 22 November 2017. 

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ‘Mladić Trial Judgement Part II’, YouTube, 22 November 2017.