Ratko Mladic Removed From Courtroom

“You are not giving me a lawyer. You are no Court. You won’t even let me breathe”, said Mladic, after Alphons Orie, Chair of the Trial chamber started reading the indictment.

Mladic was cautioned several times prior to his removal for disturbing the Trial chamber.

While Mladic was being helped leave the courtroom, several victims who were present in the public gallery of the Hague tribunal also protested saying: “Your victims can’t breathe either”, and called Mladic a “killer of Bosniaks and Serbs”.

Mladic, former Commander of the Main Headquarters with the Republika Srpska Army, VRS, was arrested in Serbia on May 26 this year after more than 16 years on the run.
 
Mladic is charged with having participated in genocide, crimes against humanity and the violation of the laws and customs of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period from 1992 to 1995. Mladic’s indictment charges him in 11 counts, among other things, for genocide committed in 1992 in seven municipalities in BiH, and in 1995 in Srebrenica.

The Hague prosecution also charges him with participating in crimes over non-Serb population in 20 municipalities in BiH, taking UN personnel as hostages and the shelling and sniping campaign of Sarajevo which killed several hundred men, women and children.
 
The indictee was transferred to The Hague Detention Unit on May 31 this year. Duty counsel Aleksandar Aleksic represented him during his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY judges.
 
During his initial appearance on June 3 this year, Mladic asked the Court to let him have additional time to familiarise himself with the indictment before he could enter his plea.

During this hearing, Mladic asked that he be represented by Milos Saljic, a Serbian attorney who represented him during the extradition process from Belgrade.

Judge Orie told the accused that the Tribunal’s Secretary was “reviewing the qualifications” of Saljic and Russian legal expert Alexander Medzyev.

“I am asking for two lawyers, Saljic and Medzyev. Saljic was a military judge. He visited me in the cell and we talked for four hours. I am also asking for Medzyev to come to meet me. So the three of us and my son can make a draft of our defense”, said Mladic.

Aleksandar Aleksic, the duty council, told the court that Mladic has refused to cooperate with him and that asked the court to relieve him of his obligations.

The Trial chamber refused Aleksic’s request and they told him he was obligated to receive all materials from the prosecution, and to act on behalf of Mladic.

“When Mladic’s permanent council is named, then you, Mr. Aleksic, will be relieved, and then you will be obligated to hand all of the materials to him so they are not lost”, said judge Orie.