IVETIĆ: CIRCUMSTANCES OF GENERAL MLADIĆ'S DEATH MUST NOT BE CONCEALED

BELGRADE, SEPTEMBER 4 /SRNA/ - Defense lawyer for General Ratko Mladić Dragan Ivetić said today that the circumstances of General Mladić's death while in detention in The Hague must not be concealed, and that the Hague Mechanism must not close this chapter by remaining silent or by failing to fully disclose the facts.

"The man died in international detention after his urgent humanitarian release for medical treatment was denied. His family has the right to answers," Ivetić said at a press conference in Belgrade.

Ivetić said that, apart from the general's death certificate, the Hague Mechanism had not provided any medical records, even though such records exist.

He stressed that the defense had not requested General Mladić's release from detention, but rather the strictly humanitarian release of a terminally ill man so that he could spend his final days under medical supervision in Serbia, in his native language and in the presence of his immediate family.

Ivetić emphasized that Serbia had provided all the necessary conditions, with the additional possibility for the Mechanism to set its own conditions.

He added that two judges, as well as both independent medical experts engaged by the Mechanism, supported the release, citing the importance of dignity, being with family and communicating in his native language.

"The President /of the Mechanism/ rejected the release, and with that decision, General Mladić became the first detainee of the Hague Tribunal, or the Mechanism, who was forced to die in detention after a request for humanitarian release due to terminal illness had been denied," Ivetić said.

He said that General Mladić had not been treated equally and reminded that the Tribunal had previously accepted the early release of terminally ill prisoners.

In those cases, Ivetić said, it had been accepted that "justice does not require a terminally ill person to die in detention".

General Ratko Mladić died at the detention hospital in The Hague on August 27.

The Hague Mechanism rejected several requests for the general to be released so that he could receive medical treatment in Serbia.