Former Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to war crime charges at the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. DPA reported.
He was one of the leaders of a Serb insurgency in Croatia after it split from Yugoslavia in 1991. Backed by Belgrade, the rebels held up to a third of Croatian soil and routinely drove out the non-Serbs.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) charged Hadzic with crimes against humanity and violations of customs and practices of war.
He is accused of extermination and murder; imprisonment, torture, inhumane acts and cruel treatment; deportation and forcible transfer; and wanton destruction and plunder of private and public property.
Hadzic was the final fugitive the ICTY sought from Serbia. He fled as his indictment was announced and remained on the run seven years.
The 52-year-old was arrested on July 20 in Serbia and delivered to The Hague two days later.
Among the crimes he is accused of are the October 1991 execution of 264 Croatian prisoners in Vukovar, a town in eastern Croatia that was heavily damaged in a two-month siege early in the war.
It may take several months until Hadzic's trial begins.
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