Body of War Criminal Mladic Lies in State in Serbian Capital Ahead of Funeral – WTOP News
Thousands gathered as Serbia prepared full military honors for Ratko Mladic, whose conviction for genocide and war crimes remains a source of EU criticism.
- On Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, the body of Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic lay in state at the St. Luke Church in Belgrade as thousands of mourners gathered to honor the convicted war criminal who died last week.
- Mladic died at 84 on Aug. 27 while serving a life sentence for genocide, including orchestrating the 1995 massacre of more than 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war.
- Despite international condemnation, the Serbian government sent a plane to bring Mladic's remains to Belgrade, with soldiers carrying the flag-draped coffin as Patriarch Porfirije, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, prepared to lead the funeral with full military honors.
- European Union enlargement commissioner Marta Kos canceled a planned visit to protest the glorification, while President Aleksandar Vucic dismissed the criticism, accusing Kos of "lying" amid rising tensions.
- Vucic, who is not attending the funeral, has stepped up anti-Western rhetoric ahead of a high-stakes early parliamentary election expected next month as Serbia's European Union bid remains stalled due to democratic backsliding.
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Hundreds of people have already gathered in Belgrade for the funeral of former Bosnian Serb army leader and war criminal Ratko Mladic. He died in late August at the age of 84 in prison in Scheveningen. He will be buried this afternoon. Among those attending the service are family members, former military personnel, officials, and the Serbian Minister of Justice, Nenad Vujic. It is formally not a state funeral; the European Union wanted to preven…
Thousands of mourners gather in Belgrade for war criminal Mladic's funeral
Thousands of mourners on Monday gathered at a church in Belgrade to view the body of Ratko Mladic, who died in The Hague, Netherlands, on August 27 while serving a life sentence for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The European Union has heavily criticised the event, and Marta Kos, the bloc's enlargement commissioner, cancelled an upcoming visit to Serbia in protest.
Body of war criminal Mladic lies in state in Serbian capital ahead of funeral – WTOP News
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The body of Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander who died while serving a life sentence for war crimes, lay in state on Monday as Serbia defied European Union warnings against paying public homage to the man found guilty of the continent’s first case of genocide since World War II. Thousands...
Body of war criminal Mladic lies in state in Serbian capital ahead of
A man touches the cross as Serbian national military servicemen stand around the coffin of the former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who died last week while serving a life sentence for genocide and other atrocities during the war in Bosnia, at the St. Luka Church, in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)
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