Ratko Mladić Dies in The Hague While Serving Life Sentence

Overview

• The death was reported by Serbian state broadcaster RTS and confirmed by a United Nations official on Thursday, August 27, 2026.
• Mladić had been serving a life sentence after his 2017 conviction for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for actions including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.
• The Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said Judge Graciela Gatti Santana ordered an exhaustive probe into the circumstances of his death at the UN detention centre in The Hague.
• For years Mladić suffered repeated strokes and hospitalizations and requests from his family and Serbian authorities for humanitarian release were repeatedly rejected by the tribunal, which said he received necessary palliative care.
• His death ends any further legal proceedings against him, deepens divisions in Serbia where some still revere him, and raises questions for survivors about transparency, accountability and how custodial health care is managed.