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Serbia Extradites Last Indicted War Crimes Suspect Hadzic

22.07.2011 13:51

By RFE/RL

Goran Hadzic, the wartime leader of ethnic Serbs in Croatia who is accused of ordering one of the earliest atrocities of the Balkan wars, has arrived in The Hague for handover to international authorities.

It is Serbia's second major extradition of a high-profile war crimes suspect in less than a month, following the capture in late June of wartime Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic.

The 52-year-old Hadzic's lawyers signed documents renouncing his right to appeal the extradition, according to RFE/RL's Balkan Service.

Earlier in the day, Hadzic was taken from a detention unit in Belgrade to the Belgrade airport in a convoy of jeeps and police cars, with no official confirmation it was him until after the plane took off.

Only after it left the ground did Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic tell reporters: "At this moment, his plane is on its way to The Hague."

"I inform you, that in morning hours I have signed extradition order for Goran Hadzic to be transferred to The Hague war crimes tribunal," Malovic told reporters. "By this act , the hardest chapter in the cooperation with The Hague tribunal, and the biggest obligations have been fulfilled."

Hadzic is the ninth international war-crimes indictee to have been captured by Serbian authorities in the past eight years and brings to 38 the number of inmate at the Hague tribunal's Scheveningen detention facility, RFE/RL's Balkan Service reports.

The extradition comes just two days after Hadzic was captured on July 20 in the region of Fruska Gora, in western Serbia, just a few miles from the village across the Croatian border where he was born.

He had been on the run since he was charged in 2004 on 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He is the the last of 161 people indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for their roles in bloody 1990s wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia.

The charges against Hadzic stem from atrocities that occurred in Croatia from 1991-95. The indictment particularly mentions a 1991 massacre in Vukovar in which some 250 non-Serbs were shot and buried in unmarked graves at a farm -- one of the earliest atrocities of the bloody conflicts in Yugoslavia.

According to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Hadzic was also among those responsible for the leveling of Vukovar, which is said to be the first European city entirely destroyed since World War II.

Serbian war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told reporters earlier this week that police were able to catch Hadzic thanks to finding last year a stolen painting by Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani that Hadzic allegedly was trying to sell.

The prosecutor said that after monitoring the financial network of Hadzic's suspected aides for months, police found out he was to meet a money courier on July 20 in a forest near the village of Krusedol in the region of Fruska Gora.

Vukcevic said Hazdic was armed but did not resist arrest.

Hazdic was granted a final wish to visit his ailing mother and other family members at his family home in Novi Sad under police escort early on July 22 ahead of his extradition.

Serbian media reported that before leaving for Novi Sad, Hadzic also received a visit on July 21 in his cell in Belgrade from his mistress and the child he had with her. He also reportedly met with his wife and children in his Belgrade cell.

The UN court is expected to schedule an initial appearance for Hadzic next week, when he will be asked to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to the charges against him. It could take up to a year for his trial to open.

based on RFE/RL Balkan Service and agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/hadzic_extradition_belgrade_hague/24273284.html

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.