[JURIST] Serbian officials transferred former Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin [Trial Watch profile] to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive] Saturday after the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court refused his appeal [B92 report] against extradition. Serbian Minister of Justice Dusan Petrovic [official profile] approved [press release] the transfer Friday. Zupljanin was arrested [JURIST report] earlier this month. He was indicted [text] by the ICTY on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the laws of war for allegedly killing civilians during the Balkan ethnic conflicts of the 1990s. AFP has more. The International Herald Tribune has additional coverage.

The EU has made Serbia's cooperation with the ICTY a key element of its membership negotiations [EU accession materials]. There have been 43 Serbian suspects transferred to the tribunal since its inception in 1993. The remaining fugitives sought by the tribunal are Bosnian Serb leaders Ratko Mladic [BBC profile] and Radovan Karadzic, and Croatian Serb war crimes suspect Goran Hadzic [ICTY indictments].