BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s president Boris Tadic says authorities acted immediately after discovering the hiding place of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic.
Tadic denied widespread claims that authorities knew where the wartime Bosnian Serb commander was hiding — but timed the capture to give a boost to Serbia’s pre-membership talks with the European Union.
Tadic told The Associated Press on Monday that “any such comment makes no sense. The truth is that we arrested Ratko Mladic the moment we discovered him.”
Europe’s most wanted war crimes fugitive Mladic was arrested on Thursday in a village north of Belgrade after 16 years on the run. He is charged by a U.N. war crimes court for atrocities committed by his troops during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.
