Genocide fugitive Ratko Mladic’s family asks court to declare him dead in Serbia

Family asks court to declare Ratko Mladic dead

BELGRADE, Serbia — The family of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic asked a Serbian court on Wednesday to declare him officially dead — a move authorities called an attempt to undermine efforts to catch Europe’s most-wanted war crimes fugitive.

Family lawyer Milos Saljic submitted a formal motion asking the Belgrade judges to rule that Mladic was no longer alive after 15 years on the run.

“Mladic was last seen in February 2003,” Saljic said. “After that, despite determined search by international and local security services, there is no evidence that he’s alive.”

Saljic said Mladic, who would be 68, had been seriously ill and could not have survived without medical care. He added that the death certificate would “relieve pressure” on Mladic’s family, which he claimed was being harassed by the security services.

Authorities said the move appeared designed to undermine efforts by Serbia’s pro-Western government to locate Mladic, who has been on the run since he was indicted for genocide in 1995 by a U.N. war crimes court.

Bruno Vekaric, Serbia’s deputy war crimes prosecutor, has dismissed the family’s initiative as “speculation,” and added that the search for Mladic was continuing unabated.

Mladic’s arrest is crucial for Serbia’s bid to become a member of the European Union. He is wanted by the U.N. court over the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica in 1995 and a three-year armed siege of the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, that left tens of thousands dead.

Saljic dismissed the possibility that Mladic was living under a false identity like former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who was arrested in Belgrade in 2008 disguised as a New Age guru, brandishing long white hair and a beard.

“It is not in his personality to act,” Saljic said. “Such a man is not able to live a different life from the one he has always lived.”

The authorities believe Mladic is hiding somewhere in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, under the protection of a few of his hardline wartime comrades, never leaving his apartment.

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Associated Press writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report.