Blog has moved, searching new blog...

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Mladic to be declared dead by Serb authorities?

The family of Ratko Mladic, world famous fugitive from the ICTY, has asked a Serbian court to declare him dead because he's been unheard of for seven years. According to the news story:
Under Serbian law, a person can be declared if they are over 70 years old and there has been no information about them for five years. However, Mladic is only 68, so the family will have to prove that "he disappeared under such circumstances that make it probable that he is no longer alive."
This is not an exceptional law, which exists in many countries, such as France. Technically, a Serbian court's decision is unlikely to have any direct impact on ICTY proceedings, but it would be kind of weird Kafkaian situation that an international court pursue the arrest and prosecution of an individual declared legally dead by another court...
This is the second time this month that the ICTY might have to deal with a dead defendant, with Delic's heart attack with his appeal pending. In relation to that, we are still waiting for a decision by the ICTY on the fate of the proceedings. I suppose there's no rush, no that he's dead...

No comments:

Post a Comment