Belgrade on Monday reiterated a request that Ratko Mladic, the convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal, be released on health grounds for treatment in Serbia, warning that his death "could come at any time".
Mladic, 84, is serving a life sentence in prison in The Hague after being found guilty in 2017 of genocide and war crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
His family had already tried to have him released, saying he was severely ill and suffered a stroke in April, but the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in May rejected the demand.
The court stated at the time that Mladic had access to proper medical care in prison.
In the renewed request to the court, Serbia's justice minister, Nenad Vujic, asked for Mladic to be transferred to a Belgrade military hospital, according to a statement.
Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, told Serbian media on Friday that "this is a silent murder of my father", alleging that prison doctors had "entirely stopped treatment".
Mladic, who was arrested in Serbia in 2011, had the verdict against him confirmed on appeal in 2021.
One of the crimes ascribed to him was the July 1995 massacre of approximately 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in the eastern Srebrenica region.
An association of mothers who lost their sons in Srebrenica has denounced the repeated calls for Mladic's release as "provocations", and said that if he were freed it would be "a huge injustice".
