Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general, could be extradited to The Hague within days to face genocide charges, after a Belgrade court ruled on Friday he was healthy enough to stand trial.
The long-time fugitive’s family had argued that Mr Mladic, said to be suffering from high blood pressure, heart disease and a kidney stone and to have suffered strokes, was too ill to be extradited. The court gave Mr Mladic until Monday to appeal, which his lawyers said he would do.
Mr Mladic, arrested on Thursday after 16 years on the run, has long been sought by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to stand trial on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
He is accused of orchestrating the siege of Sarajevo during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, and the massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, the worst atrocity in Europe since the second world war.
The speed with which the Serbian authorities are moving signals an apparent desire to end the country’s relative isolation since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, and to accelerate its integration into the European Union.
EU and other international leaders have hailed Mr Mladic’s arrest as the opportunity for a new start by the Balkan country.
But the former general is still seen as a hero by many Serbs, and supporters said they planned to hold demonstrations in coming days.
The nationalist Serbian Radical Party called for supporters to rally on Sunday, and sporadic protests took place in Belgrade and Novi Sad, Serbia’s second biggest city, on Friday.
Serbian officials, asking not to be named, told Associated Press on Friday that Mr Mladic was captured in a “routine raid” in the village of Lazarevo, in the early hours of Thursday. They said they had no specific intelligence indicating that Mr Mladic was in the house, belonging to his cousin, although they had information he was in the village in the north-east of the country.
Ratko Mladić in 1993 
, otherwise known as "The Butcher of Bosnia," has been arrested after being sought for over a decade. The 69-year-old former Serbian general and war crimes suspect was arrested on May 26 by Serbian special police in , Serbia. Mladić was accused of war crimes shortly after the 1992–1995 . He was wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity, including the orchestration of a massacre of over 8000 Muslim Bosniak men and boys in .

The arrest has prompted protests from Serbian nationalists, who herald Mladić as a national hero and patriot. However, the international reaction to Mladić's capture is more positive. French President Nicolas Sarkozy praised Serbia's actions, saying it is another step for Serbia on the path to joining the European Union. Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt gave similar praise, saying that the Serbia's prospects of joining the EU are "brighter than ever."

Serbia's war crimes court ruled that Mladić is fit for trial, despite claims from family and supporters to the contrary. Ratko Mladić's son Darko claims that his father is too weak to face extradition to The Hague for trial. Mladić could face extradition within a matter of days.


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cs:Srbové chytili Mladiće, půjde před tribunál v Haagu
de:Serbien: Mutmaßlicher Kriegsverbrecher Ratko Mladić verhaftet
fr:Serbie : Ratko Mladić arrêté pour crimes contre l'humanité
ru:Арестован Ратко Младич
sr:Ухапшен Ратко Младић