Probe Launched After Ratko Mladic Speaks on Serbian TV

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, MICT said that it is investigating whether former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic broke any rules by speaking live on Friday to Serbian channel TV Happy’s morning show from custody in the Netherlands.

Mladic addressed the show’s guests after being called on the telephone by his son Darko, who was launching a book about the former general in Belgrade on Friday.

MICT spokesperson Helena Eggleston said that detainees have the right to communicate with their family members, but any contact with the media must be approved in advance by the UN court’s secretariat.

“We are considering whether there has been a violation of custody rules regarding detainees’ communication,” Eggleston told BIRN.

She declined to speculate on possible sanctions that could be imposed on Mladic.

“It is now up to the secretariat to decide whether there has been a violation, and if there has, the detention unit [where Mladic is being held] and the secretariat shall take certain measures,” she said.

Mladic’s son Darko was hosted on the Serbian pro-government TV Happy channel alongside Russian State Duma deputy Pavel Dorokhin and the convicted Serbian war criminal and nationalist politician Vojislav Seselj.

At one point during the show, Darko Mladic called his father, who hailed Dorokhin and his Communist Party of Russia, invited Seselj to visit him in custody, and advised him to lose weight.

Mladic was convicted of genocide and other wartime crimes by the UN court in The Hague in November 2017 but will appeal against the verdict sentencing him to life imprisonment. The final judgment is due to be handed down next year.