Document proves Mladic has cancer, lawyer claims

RATKO MLADIC’S lawyer said yesterday that he has a document proving the war crimes suspect has been battling cancer and that he was treated at a Serbian hospital in 2009.

Milos Saljic told The Associated Press that Mladic has suffered from lymph node cancer and that he underwent surgery and chemotherapy for it in 2009. The lawyer showed the AP what he called a photocopy of a doctors’ diagnosis saying that Mladic was in a Serbia hospital between April 20 and July 18, 2009. The document has blackened out letterhead and signatures to hide the names of the hospital and the doctors who allegedly treated Mladic.

The top of the medical certificate clearly bears Mladic’s name, date and place of birth, his father’s name and Mladic’s rank as a general.

However, Mladic’s name does not appear anywhere else on the certificate, which refers only to “the patient.”

The mention of Mladic’s rank suggests the form could come from a military facility, but Belgrade’s military hospital refused to comment yesterday.

Serbia’s Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac accused Saljic of “manipulating the public” and was sceptical about his claims. “I really don’t believe in that story, but we’ll investigate,” the minister said.

Serbia handed over the wartime Bosnian Serb army commander to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday after he had spent 16 years on the run. Serbia extradited Mladic to the tribunal five days after arresting him in Serbia.

Saljic had argued that Mladic should not be extradited because of his ill health.

Tribunal spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic declined yesterday to comment on Saljic’s claim that Mladic had cancer, and there was no way to immediately check the authenticity of the lawyer’s document.

If the document is accurate, it could add weight to long-standing claims that Serbian authorities knew Mladic’s whereabouts when he was at large, but only decided to arrest him recently because it would benefit Serbia’s bid to join the European Union.

Regarding the document, Saljic said he was given it on Monday, the day before Mladic’s extradition.

“A man called me on the phone, asking if I was interested in a document that could prevent Ratko Mladic’s extradition to The Hague,” Saljic said in an interview in Belgrade, Serbia.

Yesterday, the tribunal assigned a Serbian lawyer to defend the former Bosnian Serb military chief when he appears before UN judges for the first time to face 11 war crimes charges.