Ratko Mladic was treated in hospital for cancer, says lawyer

War crimes suspect Ratko Mladic’s lawyer says the former Bosnian Serb army commander has been battling cancer and was treated at a Serbian hospital in 2009.

Milos Saljic said Mladic has suffered from lymph node cancer and that he underwent surgery and chemotherapy for it in 2009.

The lawyer showed what he called a photocopy of a doctors’ diagnosis saying that Mladic was in a Serbian hospital between April 20 and July 18, 2009.

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The document has blacked-out letterhead and signatures to hide the names of the hospital and the doctors who allegedly treated him.

Serbia handed over Mladic to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague, Netherlands, on Tuesday after he spent 16 years on the run.

The tribunal has assigned a Serbian lawyer to defend Mladic when he appears before UN judges for the first time to face 11 war crimes charges.

Tribunal spokeswoman Nerma Jelacic said Aleksandar Aleksic has only been appointed for yesterday’s hearing and that Mladic would probably indicate in court how he wanted to organise his defence.

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