31 Jul 2008

Karadzic to face war crimes court

6:35 am on 31 July 2008

Former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, is to face the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday.

Karadzic has been been extradited to the Netherlands and is being held at a UN detention centre. He was arrested on 21 July in Belgrade after 13 years on the run.

He has been indicted on 11 charges including genocide and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s.

Karadzic, 63, will appear before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at 1600 (1400 GMT) to hear the charges against him, and will have 30 days to enter a plea.

He was taken from a court building in Belgrade at 0345 (0145 GMT) on Wednesday and put aboard a special flight to Rotterdam airport.