Justice minister visits Ratko Mladic in prison

Justice minister visits Ratko Mladic in prison

She told RTS on Thursday that Mladic had been visited by doctors from Serbia two days before, and that based on their report, a letter would be sent to the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) - which continues to perform some of ICTY's functions - to grant Mladic temporary release and allow him to receive medical treatment in Serbia.

At the beginning of October, the Serbian government provided guarantees for Mladic's temporary release for medical treatment, acting on the request of Mladic's family and defense attorneys. However, the ICTY did not approve the request.

On November 22, Mladic was found guilty in the first-instance ruling and sentenced to life in prison for crimes committed in Bosnia- Herzegovina, and is awaiting the second-instance procedure before the MICT, on the appeal filed by his defense.

Mladic, the wartime military leader of Serbs in Bosnia, has been in ICTY's detention unit since May 2012, when he was arrested after spending nearly 12 years hiding.

His family and lawyers are constantly appealing for medical treatment to be granted because they say he is not receiving adequate care in the Hague detention unit.