Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladic is fit to be extradited to the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, a judge at a special Serbian war crimes court said today.
"Mladic's lawyer was delivered the extradition papers and he has until Monday to appeal," judge Maja Kovacevic said.
He said Mladic had been examined by a medical commission "which has determined he is fit for further proceedings".
Mladic's lawyer, Milos Saljic, said he would appeal against the extradition on Monday and insisted that Mladic could not be handed over to The Hague until his health was stable. "He must be provided with adequate treatment before the extradition," he told reporters.
Mladic, accused of orchestrating the 43-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and the massacre of 8,000 Muslims from the town of Srebrenica in July 1995, was found yesterday in a farmhouse owned by a cousin about 100km from Belgrade.
One of Mladic's sons said today the family believed he should not be extradited to face genocide charges because of his poor health.
"We are almost certain he cannot be extradited in such condition," said Darko Mladic, speaking after Mladic's family saw him before he was interviewed by an investigative judge at the Belgrade special war crimes court. "He is in very bad shape. His right arm is half paralysed. His right side is partly numb."
The court hearing against the Bosnian Serb military leader (69) was halted yesterday when his lawyer said he was in "poor physical state".
During the brief appearance in Belgrade, Mladic was too frail to understand the proceedings, according to a lawyer, Milos Saljic. They were adjourned and questioning of Mladic was due to resume today, said Bruno Vekaric, the deputy war crimes prosecutor.
Darko Mladic said his father has received some treatment. "But we have asked that he should be transferred to the military hospital and we have sought an independent medical team from Russia to oversee his treatment. He recognised us, he is aware that he is in court detention."
He declined to comment on his father's whereabouts over the last decade. "This is the first time we see him."
He said a cardiologist and a neurologist had agreed to come from Moscow and help with his father's treatment but this depended on obtaining the approval of the court.
Mladic is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague to stand trial on 15 charges alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity. These are connected to his oversight of the Bosnian Serb army’s conduct in the Bosnian war of 1992 to 1995.
More than 100,000 people died in Bosnian conflict, which included indiscriminate shelling of civilians in the capital, Sarajevo, during which some 10,000 people died, and the genocidal murder of up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica.
Russia, which opposed the 1999 Nato bombing of Serbia and has accused the West in the past of bias against Bosnian Serbs, called for a fair trial for Mladic.
Mladic, who had evaded capture for 16 years since his indictment, was arrested in the village of Lazarevo, near the northeastern town of Zrenjanin, about 100km from the capital Belgrade, in the early hours of yesterday. He was using the pseudonym Milorad Komadic and was said to be living in a house owned by a cousin.
Meanwhile, Serbia wants to speed up its bid to join the European Union after the arrest of Mladic and focus on arresting the last war crime fugitive, Goran Hadzic, the country's president said today.
It also wants step up the fight against crime and corruption, Serbia president Boris Tadic said.
"After Mladic's arrest I am convinced we will resolve the case of Goran Hadzic...but also we will be able to shift more of our assets from war crime and war criminals to organised crime," he said.
Mr Tadic declined to elaborate on the details of Mladic's arrest. "The probability of this was very high and it finally happened," he said.
Hadzic, the wartime political leader of rebel Serbs in Croatia, is sought for war crimes during the 1991-1995 war and remains a fugitive.
Serbian police have raided homes of his suspected supporters many times but have failed to find him.
Mladic's arrest was an important message for a region struggling to heal the wounds of years of ethnic wars that brought about the collapse of Yugoslavia.
Mr Tadic has in the past apologised for Serb crimes during the Balkan wars, but with Mladic at large, his words rang hollow for many.
"We want to get rid of ballast of the past, of the demons of the past," Mr Tadic said. Mladic's arrest "is the precondition for true and sincere reconciliation in the region."
Despite Mladic's arrest, Serbia and other western Balkan countries still have to complete democratic, judicial and economic reforms before they can join the EU.
"We all must fulfill all criteria. We must not bring in old conflicts, misunderstandings, corrupt societies," Mr Tadic said.
Of six former Yugoslav republics only Slovenia is already a EU member. Croatia, Serbia's wartime foe, is likely to finalise its EU negotiations this year and become a member in 2013, but it still has to convince the bloc it reformed its judiciary and fully cooperated with the UN war crimes court.
Additional reporting Reuters