Accused war criminal Radovan Karadzic eluded authorities for 13 years by hiding in plain site -- he grew a beard, worked in an alternative medicine clinic, and even gave lectures and had his own website.

Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb president during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, was arrested Monday in a Belgrade suburb.

Photographs apparently taken in the past few years show him with long white hair with a black streak in the middle, a flowing white beard and large glasses.

Using the alias Dragan Dabic, Karadzic managed to live what seems to have been a relatively normal life while rumours circulated that he was hiding out in mountain caves and monasteries in remote eastern Bosnia.

The editor of Belgrade's "Healthy Life" magazine, Goran Kojic, said Karadzic -- using his false name -- was even a regular contributor to the publication.

"It never even occurred to me that this man with a long white beard and hair was Karadzic," Kojic told The Associated Press.

The former leader, who is a trained psychiatrist, even had a website that, as of Tuesday evening, was still online: www.psy-help-energy.com. He apparently sold new-age health aids related to "human quantum energy." Images on the website show strange metallic objects connected by wires or strings.

During the war, Karadzic allegedly masterminded the infamous "siege of Sarajevo." He has been charged with genocide, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts, and other crimes against Bosnian Muslim, Bosnian Croat and other non-Serb civilians.

On Tuesday morning, Karadzic was questioned by a Serbian war crimes judge. He was then ordered to be deported to The Hague -- however, his lawyers have three days to appeal the ruling.

"This tribunal welcomed and was very happy to hear about Karadzic's arrest yesterday in Serbia and we are ready and hopeful he is transferred to The Hague detention facilities as soon as possible," Nerma Jelacic, of the International War Crimes Tribunal, told CTV's Canada AM.

Among the worst crimes Karadzic is charged with is the slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica in 1995 -- the largest massacre in Europe since the Second World War.

If Karadzic's extradition is approved, he will still have the opportunity to appeal the ruling -- a move that could delay his transfer by days or weeks.

A Serbian police source was cited in reports as saying Karadzic was nabbed in a raid in a Belgrade suburb after police monitored his behaviour for weeks. However, other reports said Karadzic was arrested Friday on a bus.

"He just said that these people showed him a police badge and than he was taken to some place and kept in the room. And that is absolutely against the law what they did," his lawyer Sveta Vujacic told AP Television News.

In response to his arrest, Bosnian Muslims jammed the streets of Sarajevo early Tuesday in celebration.

Meanwhile, Serbian officials braced for a possible reaction from hard-line nationalists -- dozens of whom gathered near the court in Belgrade where he was being questioned. Heavily armed police were in place at the court, as well as throughout Belgrade and in front of the U.S. embassy.

Karadzic's arrest and trial at The Hague is a major condition for Serbia's European Union membership. However, it's unclear whether he will be transferred to The Hague, or put on trial for war crimes in Belgrade

"What's significant here is that it's the Serbian government itself that has arrested him and is surrendering him to the tribunal," Payam Akhavan, a former war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, told Canada AM.

He called it "a good day for international justice" and said the arrest sends a strong message to other tyrannical leaders that war criminals will be brought to justice.

Karadzic's 15 international war trial charges include the following:

  • six counts of genocide and complicity in genocide (in Srebrenica and elsewhere in Bosnia)
  • two counts of crimes against humanity
  • one count of violations of the laws or customs of war
  • one count of a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions governing wartime conduct
  • one count of persecution
  • two counts of deportations and other inhumane acts
  • one count of inflicting terror upon civilians
  • one count of taking hostages

With files from The Associated Press