- His lawyer insists Gen Mladic is too ill to stand trial
Former Bosnian army head Ratko Mladic is due to make his first appearance at The Hague war crimes tribunal.
He was arrested last week in Serbia after 16 years on the run from charges of having committed atrocities during the 1992-95 Bosnian war.
His lawyer and his family say he is too ill to stand trial but Serbian government doctors said he was fit.
He is charged with masterminding the massacre of nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.
In his first hearing before the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Gen Mladic is to be asked if he understands the charges against him.
‘Cancer treatment’
He is charged with genocide, persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts and cruel treatment for his alleged part in a plot to achieve the “elimination or permanent removal” of Muslims from large parts of Bosnia in pursuit of a “Greater Serbia”.
As well as Srebrenica, Europe’s worst atrocity since World War II, Gen Mladic is also charged over the 44-month siege of the capital Sarajevo from May 1992 in which 10,000 people died.
He will be asked if he wishes to enter a plea. If he does not enter one within 30 days, the judges will enter pleas of not guilty on his behalf.
His lawyer in Serbia before he was extradited on Tuesday, Milos Saljic, said Gen Mladic would not enter any pleas at the hearing.
A spokeswoman for the tribunal, Nerma Jelacic, said Serbian lawyer Aleksandar Aleksic had been appointed to represent Gen Mladic for the hearing.
He may then choose a permanent counsel for the trial, or opt to conduct his own defence.
On Thursday, Mr Saljic said Gen Mladic had been treated for cancer two years ago at a Belgrade hospital.
Mr Saljic has previously been quoted as saying by Serbian media that his client had suffered three strokes and two heart attacks, was too ill to be sent to The Hague and would not live to the end of a trial.
Source : BBC News
