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Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic dies in prison at 84

Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military commander convicted of war crimes and genocide during the 1990s Yugoslav conflicts, has died in prison at age 84 while serving a life sentence.

Eleni Papadaki-Van Der Merwe Staff Writer

AUGUST 27, 2026 AT 7:10 PM

Serbian state broadcaster RTS and the official Bosnian Serb television network reported that Mladic died at a United Nations detention facility hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, where he had been serving a life sentence for war crimes.

A family member, speaking anonymously due to the sensitive nature of the situation, confirmed the death to the Associated Press and indicated that Mladic’s son, Darko Mladic, was traveling to The Hague. However, UN court officials stated they could not immediately verify the reports.

Life Sentence for Genocide

The UN tribunal for war crimes committed during the Yugoslav conflicts of the 1990s handed Mladic a life sentence in 2017, a verdict widely regarded as a milestone in delivering justice to victims. He had been in custody since 2011 following years as a fugitive from international law.

The blue-eyed former communist officer transformed into a nationalist warlord became one of the most infamous figures of a conflict that claimed more than 100,000 lives and displaced over one million people. Mladic notoriously ordered his forces to “scorch the brains” of Bosnian Muslims and declared himself a “Serbian God.”

Siege of Sarajevo and Systematic Terror

When Bosnia’s ethnic war erupted in 1992, Mladic assumed command of Bosnian Serb military forces and seized vast territories to establish a Serbian mini-state. Under his leadership, Serb forces besieged the capital Sarajevo along with numerous other cities and villages, operated concentration camps for detained civilians and enemy combatants, and executed prisoners on a systematic basis.

His death marks the end of one of the darkest chapters in recent European history, though the wounds inflicted during his campaign of terror continue to affect the region.

With information from New York Post

Eleni Papadaki-Van Der Merwe

She was born in 1986 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is the granddaughter of an immigrant from Crete who settled in the Greek community of Johannesburg (one of the largest in Africa). She holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Political Science from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg and a master’s degree in Journalism from Rhodes University in Grahamstown. She began her career at English-language media outlets in Johannesburg, covering politics and economics, with a focus on issues related to migration and the diaspora. She moved to Athens in 2015 to “return to her roots,” initially to pursue graduate studies, and has remained there permanently. She is married to an Afrikaner; they have two children and live in the southern suburbs of Athens.