Karadzic arrives at UN war crimes tribunal

A plane believed to be carrying former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic landed in the Netherlands on Wednesday morning.The plane was sighted at Rotterdam airport, where helicopters and cars were waiting to whisk Karadzic to a UN detention centre near the court in The Hague where he will stand trial.Dutch ... ...and United Nations tribunal officials had been waiting at the airport for several hours, preparing for the arrival of Karadzic who was in the process of being extradited from Serbia.Police helicopters and vans with tinted windows were waiting at Rotterdam airport, the closest of several air fields where the jet carrying Karadzic could land.The Serbian government said in a statement issued early on Wednesday that its justice ministry had issued a decree that allowed Karadzic's handover.Officials at the jail near The Hague cleared the courtyard to enable a helicopter to land, although it was unclear whether Karadzic will be brought by helicopter or car.At the jail, Karadzic will go through an identification process and a medical check.The jail of the UN Yugoslav tribunal is in a separate wing of a Dutch maximum security prison in Scheveningen, a coastal suburb of The Hague, a short commute by prison car to the court where Karadzic will stand trial.Karadzic faces 11 counts including genocide, extermination and persecution.Prosecutors allege he masterminded atrocities including the 1995 massacre of 8-thousand Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.Karadzic is expected to be summoned before a judge within a day or two and will be asked to enter a plea to each of the 11 charges.However, he may postpone his plea for up to 30 days.It is likely to be several months before the trial begins, and could take several years before it concludes.

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