Goran Hadzic, a Croatian Serb general wanted for war crimes in Croatia in 1990s, has been detained by Serb authorities.
Serbian President Boris Tadic said Hadzic was arrested early on Wednesday in the Fruska Gora region, north of Belgrade, not far from his family home.
Serbian news agency Tanjug reported that Hadzic, 52, has already been taken to a court in Belgrade for the confirmation of his identity. The court will also read out the list of charges against Hadzic.
The court’s judge will then take care of all the formalities concerning Hadzic’s transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTU). Tadzic’s lawyer believes that the decision on his transfer to The Hague could be made within a week.
After the judge makes a decision on the transfer, the document will need to be approved by the justice minister and the handover to The Hague will be carried out by the Interior Ministry.
Hadzic was the ICTY's most wanted suspect after the arrests of former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic in 2008 and former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic earlier this year.
The Serbian authorities earlier promised a reward of five million euros (over $7 million) for information on Hadzic's whereabouts.
European Union's representatives repeatedly stated that the arrest of Hadzic was an indispensable condition for Serbia's accession to the EU.
