Hague Court Refuses Mladic Health Concession
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Alphons Orie, presiding judge of the trial chamber at the International Crime Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, denied the motion filed by Mladic’s defence requesting that his time in the courtroom be reduced to no more than four hours daily, a maximum of four days a week.
Orie said that there were no “concrete reasons” to cut down the former Bosnian Serb commander’s court hours.
However he said that the court would “continue to closely monitor the accused’s health and will reassess the trial sitting schedule if needed in the future”.
The medical officer at the court’s detention unit testified in June that Mladic’s condition was stable, but said that a reduction in the trial schedule would “reduce the risk of adverse medical conditions”
Mladic, who is 71 years old, suffered three strokes before his arrest in 2011. He also complained to judges about fatigue and various pains during the first year of his trial.
His trial days were already shortened to a maximum of four hours a day earlier this year.
Mladic is on trial for genocide in Srebrenica and another seven municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992, the expulsion of Bosniaks and Croats across Bosnia, terrorising the citizens of Sarajevo and taking international peacekeepers hostages.
