THE RELEASE OF GENERAL PAVKOVIĆ FOR HEALTH REASONS GIVES HOPE FOR GENERAL MLADIĆ AS WELL

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 1 /SRNA/ - The release of General Nebojša Pavković due to serious health issues gives hope that General Ratko Mladić could receive the same approval, Mladić's son Darko told SRNA.

"Pavković and Ratko are in fairly similar situations. Their diagnoses are different, but the prognoses are similar. On one hand, this gives us hope that some changes could occur, and I am hoping for that," Darko Mladić said, adding that the question remains whether this could actually happen.

In July, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals rejected General Mladić's defense team's urgent request for temporary or conditional early release due to his poor health, and Darko says that there is no set deadline for submitting a new request.

"Doctors from Serbia, a cardiologist and a neurophysician, will visit him on October 6. We will see their report soon after they return. After that, we will decide whether to request his release again or explore other possible avenues," explained the general's son, Darko.

He said he was surprised that his father had not been released, noting that General Pavković should have been granted release.

"I even think there was unnecessary delay and that he should have been released much earlier, because he has serious diagnoses. If he had been released two months ago, he would probably have had better chances, if nothing else, at least for extending his life," Darko Mladić said.

He emphasized that the Serbian government has always provided support, including guarantees, and believes it will do so again if a new request is submitted.

Regarding the general’s health, he says that his father recently underwent a procedure on his heel, during which four centimeters of necrotic tissue were removed.

He noted that in June, when The Hague rejected the request to release the general, a Hague-appointed expert wrote a report stating that the heel infection had healed, even though Serbian doctors maintained that it had not and that the skin had only superficially recovered.

Now, Darko added, it has turned out that the same wound reopened, and four centimeters of his heel had to be removed due to necrotic tissue, because an underlying infection persisted beneath the naturally healed skin.

According to him, this in a way confirmed that the Hague experts were wrong, that they submitted incorrect reports, and that the Serbian doctors were right in stating that it is a serious condition that cannot be treated as healed based solely on a superficial inspection of the skin.

"On the other hand, it gives us hope that this time we might receive a different treatment. It's not the first time that their experts have written reports that were later proven incorrect within a few months," Darko Mladić said.

General Mladić has survived several strokes and suffers from neurological, cardiovascular, and urological problems that are becoming increasingly worse and complicated.

Last year, a pacemaker was implanted in him at a hospital in the Netherlands, but his health has continued to deteriorate, and since then, his kidneys have failed.