Spain sets deadline for extradition requests

Known as the ˝Monster of Grbavica,˝ Vlahovic was detained near his home in the eastern Spanish town of Altea on Monday.

MADRID, March 5, 2010 (AFP) - Top Spanish judge Baltazar Garzon on Friday gave nations seeking the extradition of alleged Serbian war criminal Veselin Vlahovic 40 days to formalise their requests.

The High Court judge also confirmed a lower court ruling that Vlahovic, who is wanted for the murders of more than 100 people during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, be remanded in custody.

Known as the "Monster of Grbavica" after the Sarajevo suburb where he is alleged to have committed his crimes, Vlahovic was detained near his home in the eastern Spanish town of Altea on Monday in a burglary investigation.

The 40-year-old is wanted by the authorities in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro where he was born.

When war broke out in Bosnia he joined a Serb paramilitary group which was part of the notorious "White Angel" units that controlled Serb-held parts of Sarajevo, including the Grbavica suburb.

Bosnia's inter-ethnic war between its Croats, Muslims and Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives and displaced 2.2 million others. It left the country split into two semi-autonomous halves -- the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbs' Republika Srpska.