Crowd gathers at Belgrade church before Ratko Mladic’s funeral

A large crowd gathered outside a Belgrade church on Monday as Ratko Mladic’s coffin lay inside ahead of the funeral of the former Bosnian Serb wartime military commander.

Six Bosnian Serb war veterans in matching T-shirts and berets stood around the coffin, while members of Mladic’s family stood in front of it. People passed through metal detectors before forming a line to enter the Church of St Luke.

Mladic died at 84 in the hospital of the United Nations war crimes tribunal’s detention unit. The Hague tribunal convicted him of war crimes and the Srebrenica genocide and sentenced him to life in prison.

His body was flown to Belgrade on a Serbian government aircraft. His son and granddaughter accompanied him, along with Justice Minister Nenad Vujic. Pro-government media broadcast live from inside the church and the surrounding area.

The church stands near the Mladic family home and the cemetery where he is due to be buried beside his daughter Ana, who took her own life in the second half of the 1990s.