Goran Hadzic headed for war crimes tribunal

Updated at 11:59 a.m. ET

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The last Balkan war-crimes suspect was extradited to the U.N. tribunal on Friday for prosecution after being allowed a last-minute visit with his ailing mother.

Goran Hadzic, 53, is accused of atrocities stemming from Croatia's 1991-95 war, including the leveling of Vukovar and the massacre of some 200 Croat prisoners of war after the devastation of the town on the Danube.

Nabbing Hadzic has been hailed as the symbolic closure of a horrific chapter in Balkan history and an important step toward the former pariah state of Serbia joining the European Union.

A convoy of police vehicles drove Hadzic from Rotterdam airport to the U.N. detention facility at a Dutch prison outside The Hague, where he was to be given a medical examination and a copy of the 14-count indictment against him.

Hadzic will be summoned before U.N. judge O-Gon Kwon of South Korea, the tribunal's president, within a few days and asked to plead to each charge relating to the murder of hundreds of non-Serbs, mass persecution, and expulsion of tens of thousands of people from Croatia's Krajina region.

Before leaving Belgrade aboard a Cessna aircraft, Hadzic was escorted to his family home in Novi Sad, about an hour from the Serb capital.

The Serb convoy stopped in the northern city and a heavy police presence blocked the streets near the home where Hadzic went in to see his 86-year-old mother Milena, who is said to be bedridden and suffering from dementia.

Other relatives visited Hadzic in his prison cell earlier Friday.

Earlier in the day, Serb Justice Minister Snezana Malovic signed the extradition order for the former rebel Serb leader of a breakaway section of Croatia.

Hadzic did not contest his extradition.

He was arrested on Wednesday after seven years on the run, discovered by Serbian agents who had followed a money trail that began in December when Hadzic's aides tried to sell a Modigliani painting.

Hadzic's detention followed that of former Bosnian Serb Gen. Ratko Mladic on genocide charges nearly two months ago. Mladic also was granted a personal request after his arrest, and was allowed to visit his daughter's grave hours before he was sent to the Hague.

Serbia for years had faced accusations that it was not doing enough to capture war criminals. The issue had stalled its efforts to join the EU and the country now hopes to formally become a candidate for membership this year.

"This act completed the most difficult chapter in the cooperation with The Hague tribunal," Malovic said. "We have fulfilled our biggest obligations."

Also Friday, Mladic was assigned a lawyer to represent him against charges of genocide.

The tribunal named Branko Lukic, an attorney from Serbia who was lead counsel in four other cases before the U.N. court, to lead Mladic's defense. It had denied Mladic's first choice, Milos Saljic, because he spoke neither English nor French, the tribunal's two official languages.

Mladic told the court he cannot pay for another lawyer. The tribunal said Lukic will take on the case while the registrar assesses whether the court should pay his fees or whether Mladic can bear at least some of the cost.