Thousands of reports flood Bosnia prosecutor’s office over glorification of Ratko Mladic

More than 50,000 reports have been recorded over social media posts and media comments glorifying Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb commander convicted of genocide and war crimes. The reports have reached Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Prosecutor’s Office through the civic platform Register 145a.

The platform forwards reports to prosecutors after verification. Denis Dzidic, executive director of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in Bosnia and Herzegovina, told Deutsche Welle that the main problem is enforcement rather than the legal framework itself.

A large number of reports concern genocide denial and praise for convicted war criminals, but indictments remain rare despite their intended deterrent effect. The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has previously sentenced people including Miodrag Malic and Vojin Pavlovic to prison for glorifying Mladic and Radovan Karadzic.

Criminal reports now also target public figures such as Milorad Dodik and Stasa Kosarac over similar posthumous statements, Deutsche Welle reported. Local sanctions have included the dismissal of a doctor from a health center in Tomislavgrad, the termination of a surgeon’s contract at Orasje Cantonal Hospital and the removal of a young goalkeeper from the Sarajevo Football Academy after online praise for the war criminal.