Serbian Police searched Ratko Mladic’s house in Belgrade

Belgrade, Feb. 25, 2010 (Serbia Today) -  According to news reports by the Serbian  media, Serbian police (MUP) ended an operation that started on Tuesday morning, where they searched the home of Ratko Mladić in the Belgrade municipality of Banovo Brdo. The search for the former military leader of Bosnia's Serbs and Hague Tribunal began early on Tuesday with about ten officers from MUP's special units seen in front of the house. Police said that they confiscated "a number of movable objects and a small sum of money". Neighbors reported that Ratko Mladić‘s son Darko Mladić was present in the building. The last publicized operation, launched as part of the search for Mladić, took place in October of last year, near Novi Sad, with the President of the National Council for Hague Cooperation Rasim Ljajić stating at the time that a “widespread search was implemented.” In Bosnia, EUFOR conducted its own search on request from the Hague Tribunal in Bjeljina in May 2009. The last time Mladić’s home in Banovo Brdo was searched was in December 2008, when police spent eight hours there. Interior Minister Ivica Dačić said on Tuesday that the search of the location was part of the regular activities of the Action Team for the location and arrest of remaining Hague indictees. “Search is underway in certain buildings and the Office of the War Crimes Prosecutor will inform the public about that. The search is part of the regular activities which have been carried out at different locations with the aim to find evidence that might help locate the ones that have been charged with the Hague Tribunal,” Dačić told journalists during his visit to the Police Academy. Asked if state bodies were now closer to locating Mladić, Dačić answered that he would be able to answer that question "only once the search had been proved as fruitful," according to Tanjug. It was reported on Wednesday that "EUR 70,000 was found in the apartment of J. Hadži Đokića, a urologist and SANU member, former director of the Clinical Center of Serbia and JUL member". The JUL was a party founded and led by Slobodan Milošević's wife Mirjana Marković. Vujačić also said that the search was ordered by the investigating magistrate of the Belgrade Higher Court War Crimes Department, adding that it is the fourth time in the past year that Mladić's house, where his wife and son live, is being searched. Vujačić explained that he was present at the search as a "family friend" and not as a legal counsel, since Mladić's family are not suspects.