Lawyer Says Mladic Secretly Treated For Cancer

Ratko Mladic's lawyer says the war crimes suspect was treated for lymphoma in a Belgrade hospital in 2009.

War crimes suspect Ratko Mladic's lawyer has claimed the former Bosnian Serb general was secretly treated for cancer in a Belgrade hospital two years ago.

Milos Saljic said on June 2 that he had medical records showing Mladic was treated for lymphoma in 2009 in a Belgrade hospital while he was on the run from international justice.

He refused to disclose the name of the hospital or doctors who allegedly treated Mladic. A spokesman for Serbian prosecutors said the documents were a forgery.

Mladic, 69, was arrested in Serbia last week.

He is due to appear for the first time in court at the UN tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands on June 3, when he will be expected to enter a plea to charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1992-1995 Bosnia war.

compiled from agency reports