Ratko Mladić is dying? "He's got a little bit left"

"I was with my father a month ago. The doctors told me then that they believe that he is now an incurable patient and that he has a few months or even weeks left to live. Our doctors pointed to this fact a year ago, when my father fell into bed. With this statement, the Dutch doctors admitted in a way that my father, even if the doctors had the best will, could not have been provided with adequate medical assistance in prison conditions," Mladić told "Politika" daily.

He added that the doctors at the Tribunal repeatedly asked Ratko Mladić to declare that he does not want to be resuscitated in case it has to be done due to his health condition, and he categorically refused every time they asked him that question.

"They have been asking him that question since September of last year, referring to the rules of the Dutch health system. The last time he was asked this was recently, when my mother was visiting him. He also refused it in front of her. And we as a family oppose such a possibility. Firstly, my father is not a Dutch citizen, and secondly, there is a Hippocratic Oath according to which doctors are obliged to do everything possible to help and save the patient. We believe that asking such a question is a kind of pressure on my father," Darko Mladic said.

He reminded that Ratko Mladić's legal team, due to his poor state of health, submitted a request three times so far for Mladić to be released on parole or to serve the rest of the life sentence in Serbia, but that this was rejected.

"A few days ago, we officially asked the prison health service for answers to some questions about which I cannot speak at this moment. Depending on the answers we will receive through the extraordinary report on his health condition, we will decide whether we will submit a new request and on what basis," Mladić said.

He added that even if he is released on parole and is allowed to serve his sentence in Serbia, his father will spend the rest of his life in the hospital.

"At least let him die at home," said Mladic.

According to him, Ratko Mladić is a bedridden patient with serious decubitus wounds that cannot be adequately treated given his overall poor health.

"He can no longer sit in a wheelchair for a long time, and sometimes he is not even able to get out of bed in order to transfer him to a room from where a video call is established through which we communicate with him twice a week. What was not discussed and is not known is that the authorities in the prison hospital last year changed the rules for the delivery of patients' medical records, and because of this it is difficult for us to get hold of them," said Darko Mladić.