Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general sentenced to life in prison for genocide and war crimes during the Bosnian war, died on Thursday (27) at the United Nations detention center in The Hague, Netherlands. He was 83. The death was first reported by Belgrade-based Informer TV and confirmed in coverage by Brazilian outlet G1, which described its own report as still developing.

Mladic led the army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, a conflict that left around 100,000 people dead. He became known as the "Butcher of the Balkans" for the two episodes at the heart of his conviction: the nearly four-year siege of Sarajevo, which killed more than 10,000 people, and the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, when forces under his command executed more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys. International courts recognize Srebrenica as the only genocide committed in Europe since World War II.

Timeline of the case

• 1995: the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) indicts Mladic for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes;
• 1996-2011: he spends some 16 years as a fugitive, protected by support networks in Serbia;
• May 2011: arrested in the village of Lazarevo, Serbia, and extradited to The Hague;
• November 2017: convicted on 10 of 11 counts, including the Srebrenica genocide, and sentenced to life in prison;
• June 2021: the UN's residual mechanism, successor to the ICTY, rejects his appeal and makes the sentence final;
• August 27, 2026: dies at the UN detention center in The Hague.

Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that Mladic exercised effective command and control over the troops that committed the atrocities, a position upheld by judges in both instances. The defense always denied the charges. In court appearances, Mladic said he had defended his country and his people and called the accusations monstrous. He never expressed remorse for the Srebrenica killings and boycotted part of his appeal hearings. In Serbia and in Republika Srpska, the Serb entity within Bosnia, nationalist circles still regard him as a war hero.

Because the sentence became final in 2021, his death does not change the judicial outcome: no appeal or procedural step remained open. As of publication, the UN residual mechanism had not issued a formal statement on the death or its cause. Mladic had a history of health problems, and his lawyers repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought his release on humanitarian grounds.