Ratko Mladic, Serb war crimes suspect, hospitalized with pneumonia

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military chief on trial for war crimes in The Hague, has been hospitalized with suspected pneumonia, raising concerns that he will not live long enough to face genocide charges.

The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal said in a statement, reported by the Associated Press:

"Mladic was transferred to the Tribunal with a series of pre-existing medical conditions for which he is receiving treatment. The Tribunal continues to provide Mladic, as any other detainee, with the best possible medical care and attention available in the Netherlands."

Mladic, 68, is accused of orchestrating the worst atrocities committed by Srbian forces in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the AP reports, "including the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men in Srebrenica and the four-year siege of Sarajevo."

He has had three strokes and battled cancer, and has frequently complained of ill health since his extradition from Serbia in May, including pain from a kidney stone, The Telegraph reports. 

In August, he underwent surgery for a hernia, said his Belgrade-based defense lawyer, Milos Saljic, who had predicted that Mladic would not live to face trial. 

Saljic said Mladic had been "feeling somewhat better" after a dose of antibiotics, but that the authorities would not tell him which hospital they had trasferred his client to.