Mladic Asks to Be Excused From Hearing, Promises to Send Brandy to Presiding Judge

At today’s hearing of the Ratko Mladic trial, Mladic promised to send a liter of brandy to presiding judge Alphonse Orie following his release.

“When you release me, I’ll send you a liter of frontline brandy [brandy in a bottle shaped like a machine gun],” Mladic said to judge Orie, addressing him as “comrade Orie.”

Mladic addressed the judges in the Hague trial chamber after defense witness Zarko Stojkovic completed his testimony. Stojkovic claimed Mladic was the best man at his wedding on July 16, 1995, when he allegedly ordered the Bosnian Serb Army to carry out the Srebrenica genocide. Zarko Stojkovic and his wife Biljana both told the trial chamber that Mladic attended their wedding in Belgrade during the Srebrenica genocide.

Mladic has also been charged with ordering genocide in several other municipalities throughout 1992, persecuting the non-Serb population, terrorizing the local population of Sarajevo and taking UNPROFOR members hostage.

Prosecutor Peter McCloskey conducted a detailed examination of Stojkovic, asking him, among other things, what the wedding guests drank after their wedding at the Dva Ribara restaurant in Belgrade, as well as what Mladic drank.

Stojkovic said the guests were offered wine and plum brandy, and said Mladic had some brandy while giving a toast.

The prosecutor and judges asked whether Mladic smoked during the wedding party and whether he left his table to go to the toilet. Stojkovic said he did neither. McCloskey then presented Stojkovic with a photo depicting Mladic sitting next to the newlyweds at their table, holding a cigarette in his hand.

After Stojkovic completed his testimony, Mladic asked to be excused from a courtroom discussion on administrative issues, which took place because the defense had no other witnesses available.

When presiding judge Orie asked whether he would relinquish his right to attend the rest of the hearing, Mladic, whom the chamber had previously banned from speaking aloud in the courtroom, said, “Comrade Orie, I relinquish my right. I need to receive my friends, whose best man I was, at the prison unit. When you release me, I shall send you a liter of frontline brandy.”

The trial will continue on Monday, August 24.