LYON, March 27 – Interpol said Friday that a man arrested in Kenya on suspicion of war crimes in ex-Yugoslavia was not the fugitive Bosnian Serb Ratko Mladic.
Identity checks based on digital fingerprints of the man arrested in Kenya did not match those of the former Bosnian Serb commander, an Interpol spokesman said.
"A series of checks, including against Interpol’s fingerprint database have confirmed that the man is not Ratko Mladic," said the spokesman.
Mladic is wanted by an international tribunal to answer charges of genocide and other atrocities during the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia, notably for the massacre of some 8,000 Muslims in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica.
Police in Mombasa arrested the man on Thursday and he was taken to Nairobi for questioning.
A Serbian official in Belgrade earlier said it appeared unlikely that the man was Mladic, but did not rule it out completely.
The suspect is known as Igor Majeski, the owner of a tourism company called Blue Lagoon Watersports Ltd.
The tribunal has since indicted 161 suspects, who have all been arrested save for two – former Bosnian Serb military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic and former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic.
The ICTY website shows that Mladic, 67, is wanted for genocide, complicity in Genocide, Crimes against Humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war.
Once captured, Mladic will face charges of masterminding the July 1995 massacre in Srebenica, where atleast 8000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Serb forces.
He will also face charges related to the terror inflicted upon civilians during the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo and the widespread campaign of persecutions, deportation, torture and murders during 1992 in large parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, including infamous detention camps like Omarska, Keraterm, Manjača and Trnopolje in northwestern Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He has been on the run for 13 years.
Hadzic, 50, is also wanted for Crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war in Croatia and the murder and persecution of the Croat and non-Serb civilian population.
The ICTY will also charge him for the prolonged imprisonment of civilians in detention facilities where torture, beatings and killing was not uncommon and the forcible transfer of tens of thousands of non-Serbs from across the area under his control.
About The Author
