Serbia on Tuesday sent Bosnian Serb ex-army chief Ratko Mladic to a court in The Hague where he faces genocide and war crimes charges, after rejecting an appeal that he was too ill to stand trial. "Ratko Mladic has been extradited to The Hague," Justice Minister Snezana Malovic said in a televised statement.
"He is on the plane, on his way to The Hague," she said. Malovic announced his departure shortly after a convoy of jeeps and police vehicles was seen leaving Serbia's war crimes court, where Mladic had been held since his arrest on Thursday, and then arriving at Belgrade airport.
The alleged mastermind of the Srebrenica massacre and other atrocities during the 1992-95 Bosnia war, Mladic is facing charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) based in The Hague. Serbian judges had paved the way for his departure earlier Tuesday by rejecting an appeal against Mladic's transfer that claimed the former general was too ill to stand trial.