Mladic Made to Pay Defence Costs

The Registrar Office of the Hague Tribunal said that Mladic declared in June 2011 that he does not have funds to finance his Defence.

However, an investigation concluded that Mladic’s principal family home “exceeds the reasonable needs for himself and the persons with whom he habitually resides”. The Hague Tribunal also said that both Mladic and his wife Bosiljka receive monthly pensions, and that they have funds in their bank account.

After deducting the estimated living expenses for Mladic and his wife Bosiljka, the Hague Tribunal found that Mladic should remunerate the cost of his Defence in the amount of 60,992 euros, while the rest of the costs will be borne by the Hague Tribunal.

According to the rules of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, defendants can be asked to remunerate part of his Defence costs, after the estimated living expenses for himself and his dependents are deducted from his disposable means.

The decision also concluded that Mladic’s lead counsel will be Branko Lukic, while his additional attorney will be Miodrag Stojanovic.

Mladic is on trial for the genocide Srebrenica and seven other municipalities, the expulsion of Bosniaks and Croats and taking international peacekeepers hostage between 1992 and 1995.

Mladic was arrested in May 2011 after more than a decade on the run, and his trial started a year later. The Hague Prosecution is currently presenting its evidence.