Serbia’s war crimes court has rejected the appeal of former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic, paving the way to his extradition to the war crimes court in The Hague, a court spokeswoman told Reuters on Tuesday. The Hague court indicted Mladic for genocide in the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during the 1992-95 Bosnian war in 1995. Serbian security agents tracked the fugitive general last week, after 16 years on the run, to a farmhouse belonging to his cousin.
In making the arrest, they removed a major obstacle to Serbia’ bid to join the European Union. Authorities paved the way for what may be the former Bosnian Serb general’s last day in Serbia by escorting him early on Tuesday to the Belgrade grave of his daughter Ana, who committed suicide in 1994. Later on Tuesday, a court is expected to hear Mladic’s appeal against extradition to the International Criminal Court in the Dutch city of The Hague on charges of genocide in the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the massacre of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica during the 1992-95 Bosnian War. His transfer is expected within the next 24 hours, two Serbian officials said.
