A special court in Belgrade on Wednesday decided to extradite the arrested ex-president of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina Goran Hadzic to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). As expected, Serbia’s “last war criminal” may be extradited to The Hague by the end of the week, Reuters reports.

The court decided that all necessary conditions were met for Hadžić's extradition to the ICTY. Lawyers for the former leader of the Croatian Serbs stated that they do not intend to challenge this decision. The final legislative formalities for the extradition procedure will be completed after the document is signed by the Minister of Justice of Serbia and approved by the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs, RIA Novosti notes.

Hadzic is accused by the Hague Tribunal of committing war crimes during the military conflict on Croatian territory in 1991-1995. All these years he led the self-proclaimed republic of Serbian Krajina - a territory at the turn of 1980-1990. populated predominantly by Serbs and separated from Croatia after it declared its sovereignty. Zagreb managed to regain control over the Serbian Krajina only in 1995. The military actions were accompanied by ethnic cleansing on both sides. According to various estimates, from 20,000 to 26,000 people died.

Hadžić is charged by the ICTY with personal involvement in the murders of hundreds and the deportation of tens of thousands of Croats and representatives of other nationalities, as well as persecution on political, racial or religious grounds, torture, inhumane acts, cruel treatment, destruction of settlements, religious and educational institutions, plunder of public or private property .

After the capture at the end of May of the former commander of the Bosnian Serb army, Ratko Mladic, Hadzic remained the last high-ranking “fugitive” from the Hague justice. In total, the ICTY has charged 161 people with war crimes, and 125 cases have already been completed.

Experts call Hadzic’s arrest one of the important steps on Serbia’s path to membership in the European Union. The country's President Boris Tadic called the capture of the former leader of the Croatian Serbs the fulfillment of a “moral duty” and announced the closing of a “bloody page” in the country’s history. The head of state also promised to identify those who helped Hadzic hide from law enforcement agencies since July 2004.

Reacted to news from Belgrade and the Russian Foreign Ministry. Moscow expressed the hope that the trial of Hadzic will be objective, and the trial will not be used to “artificially delay the activities of the ICTY.”

The Belgrade court authorized the extradition of Hadzic to the Hague tribunal