Karadzic to Appear Before War Crimes Judge in The Hague

Prosecutors in the most important Yugoslav war crimes trial are expected to try to prove that Radovan Karadzic was responsible for overseeing genocide against the Muslims of Bosnia on a much bigger scale than already established.

Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, is to make his first public appearance today since being arrested on a Belgrade bus last week when he goes before a judge at The Hague to hear the 11 charges against him.

After more than a week in custody in Serbia, Karadzic was whisked to the Netherlands at 4am on Wednesday in a convoy of darkened jeeps to join 37 inmates incarcerated at the tribunal's detention center at Scheveningen, on the North Sea outside The Hague.

He is to appear in court today, shorn of the long beard and hair that constituted an effective disguise for many years as he inhabited a new persona as a practitioner of alternative medicine.

Karadzic is to hear the charges against him of genocide, complicity in genocide, extermination, murder, killing and persecution between 1991 and 1995 in Bosnia when he led the Serbian campaign to destroy and partition the country and drive most non-Serbs out of territory claimed by the Serbs.

"His arrest is immensely important for victims who waited too long," the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Serge Brammertz, said of the 13 years it has taken to apprehend Karadzic.

In previous cases during the tribunal's 15-year history, several attempts have been made to establish genocide in Bosnia, a notoriously difficult crime to prove. The judges have found that genocide occurred, but solely in reference to the massacre within a fortnight in July 1995 of almost 8,000 Muslim males at Srebrenica after the enclave fell to Serb forces.

"My team is reviewing the [Karadzic] indictment. We will ensure it reflects the current case law, facts already established by the court and evidence collected over the past eight years," Brammertz said.

Informed sources in The Hague said this meant the two American prosecutors conducting the case against Karadzic would seek to expand the findings of genocide to include the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted more than three years, and to the violent campaign against non-Serbs in north-west Bosnia in 1992.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who spent more than four years leading the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic, said the charge sheet against Karadzic was incomplete. "They are looking to amend it. I assume it will be," he told the Guardian.

Karadzic and his lawyers spent much of the past week seeking to delay the transfer to The Hague, which took place hours after a rally of nationalist pro-Karadzic supporters in Belgrade failed to attract the expected numbers.

He may try to delay proceedings further by refusing to enter a plea today. He is entitled to 30 days in detention at The Hague before attending a plea hearing. If he does not appear by the deadline, a not guilty plea is entered.

Brammertz said it would be "some months" before prosecution and the defence are ready for trial.

He praised the Serbian authorities for arresting Karadzic and said he hoped their continued cooperation would lead to the arrest of the two remaining fugitives, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic. If Mladic was arrested soon, he could be tried jointly with Karadzic.