Former RSK leader, Hague indictee Goran Hadzic dies

Former RSK leader, Hague indictee Goran Hadzic dies

"After a serious illness Goran Hadzic, former president of the RKS, passed away at the KCV today," the clinic announced.

Beta was told by the Serb Radical Party (SRS) that Hadzic, aged 58, died at the clinic's Emergency Center at around 20:00 CET.

The former political leader of ethnic Serbs in Croatia was indicted by the Hague Tribunal, and arrested and extradited by Serbia in the summer in 2011 as the last indicted fugitive.

His trial started in October 2012 but was suspended in October 2014 when he was taken ill while in detention. The defense announced that Hadzic had brain cancer and that his illness was in the final stages.

In April 2015, he was granted temporary release on health grounds and lived in Novi Sad ever since. Hadzic's Hague trial was suspended indefinitely in April 2016.

He was accused of persecution of Croats on racial, religious and political grounds, extermination, murder, illegal imprisonment, torture, inhumane acts, deportation and forcible relocation, in the period from 1991 until 1993, in Eastern Slavonia and Knin Krajina.