BELGRADE (AFP) ? Former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, the last fugitive wanted for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, was flown out of Serbia Friday to stand trial at the UN court in The Hague.
Hadzic was bundled aboard a plane at Belgrade airport after being granted a final wish to visit his ailing mother and other family members under police escort earlier Friday.
"At this moment his plane is on its way to The Hague," Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic told a press conference.
"I inform you that I signed the official extradition order in the course of this morning," she added.
Hadzic, 52, captured Wednesday, is the last of 161 people indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for their role in bloody 1990s wars that tore apart the former Yugoslavia. He is expected to arrive in The Hague around 2h30 pm (1230 GMT).
Hadzic faces 14 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes dating back to the 1991-95 Croatian war when troops under his command allegedly committed mass murder and deported non-Serbs.
The former Croatian Serb leader left Serbia's war crimes court, where he had been held since Wednesday, early on Friday and was driven by a police convoy to his family home in Novi Sad, some 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of the capital.
At the house, where Hadzic himself lived until he went into hiding in 2004, he is believed to have met with his mother, who was too ill to travel to Belgrade, amd his pregnant daughter who is pregnant.
When former Bosnian Serb leader Ratko Mladic was arrested nearly two months ago, Serbian authorities also allowed him to visit the grave of his daughter Ana the morning before he was put on a plane to the UN war crimes court.
Serbian media reported that before leaving for Novi Sad Hadzic also received a visit from his mistress and the child he had with her after meeting with his wife and children in his cell in the court building Thursday.
Hadzic, who had been on the run since 2004, was arrested in the idyllic mountain region of Fruska Gora near the northern city of Novi Sad two days ago.
He has been indicted over the massacre by Croatian Serb troops under his command of 250 Croats and other non-Serbs taken from a hospital in Vukovar after the city fell to Serbian troops following a three-month siege in November 1991.
He faces 14 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes for the murder of hundreds of civilians and the deportation of tens of thousands of Croats by troops under his command during the 1991-95 Croatian war.
After his transfer to The Hague the UN court will schedule an initial appearance for Hadzic, expected next week, where 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.
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