Mladic questioning halted due to health

BELGRADE, Serbia, May 26 (UPI) -- A judge at the Belgrade Higher Court's War Crimes Department Thursday suspended the questioning of Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic due to poor health.

Mladic's attorney, Milos Saljic, told B92 Judge Milan Dilparic tried to interview his client Thursday but halted the proceedings because Mladic spoke incoherently and was unable to communicate or confirm his personal data.

Saljic said he expects Dilparic to resume questioning Friday.

Serbia's BIA intelligence agency and the Service for Discovering War Crimes apprehended Mladic Thursday morning.

Mladic, the former military leader of Serbs in Bosnia, is wanted by the Hague Tribunal on genocide and war crimes charges.

B92 said Mladic had been going by the name of Milorad Komadic. The arrest took place in the village of Lazarevo, near the town of Zrenjanin in northern Serbia.

Police said an identity check and DNA analysis were being conducted to confirm the suspect's identity. Officials said the suspect held "some identification documents of Ratko Mladic and was physically very similar to him."

The arrest was confirmed by Serbian President Boris Tadic at a news conference in Belgrade Thursday.

Human-rights group No Peace Without Justice hailed the arrest.

"No Peace Without Justice and the Non-violent Radical Party, Transnational and Transparty herald today's arrest of General Ratko Mladic as a victory for justice and a critical step in the healing of the former Yugoslavia," said the organization's attorney, Alison Smith.

"Nearly 16 years ago, Bosnian Serb forces under the command of Gen. Ratko Mladic executed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys and forced another 25,000 women, children and elderly people to leave their homes. The massacre was found to constitute genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2004, a finding reaffirmed by the International Court of Justice in 2007."