Who will try Karadzic?

Dr Karadzic will be taken to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, where he will be held in a special detention unit. He will then be tried by three judges, elected by the UN General Assembly

When will it happen?

It could start within days – though Dr Karadzic’s lawyers are threatening to delay the process with challenges to the legality of his arrest

How long will it take?

Given the importance and complexity of the case, covering some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war, the trial is likely to be difficult and drawn out

What is the court in The Hague?

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was the first international war crimes court set up since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials at the end of the Second World War. The court was voted into being by the UN Security Council in 1993 during the Balkans carnage

Did it work?

The killing continued, and many have long been sceptical that the main instigators of the “ethnic cleansing” would ever be caught. But the court has since convicted many leading figures. The biggest fish it hooked was the former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic

But wasn’t Milosevic the one that got away?

Many victims were left feeling that justice had been cheated after the so-called Butcher of the Balkans died of a heart attack in his holding cell in The Hague in 2006. The presence in his blood of a tuberculosis medicine known to counteract other drugs that he had been taking for heart problems created suspicions on all sides that somehow his death was deliberate

So who has been convicted?

The court has handed out more than 1,000 years’ imprisonment after 56 convictions. Another 27 people are on trial – including Vojislav Seselj, the leader of Serbia’s ultranationalist Radical Party. In 2001 Radislav Krstic, the commander of the Bosnian Serb army’s Drina Corps, became the first person to be convicted by the court of genocide. He was sentenced to 46 years, which was later cut to 35 years for the lesser charge of aiding and abetting genocide. Other leading figures who have been convicted include Milan Babic and Milan Martic, leaders of Serb rebels in Croatia’s breakaway Krajina region, the former Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic, and Momcilo Krajisnik, the former head of the Bosnian Serb parliament

Are any suspects still at large?

Only three of the 161 suspects indicted by the court are still at large – led by the Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic

What happens if they are caught?

The court plans to shut down when the last trials are complete. Officials originally believed that that would be this year, but now say that trials will continue until early 2010 and appeals until 2011

What lasting impact has the tribunal had?

It has inspired similar tribunals for Rwanda and Sierra Leone and the creation of the world’s first international criminal court

Times Recommends

• Gloves off as McCain lands Obama 'lie' jibe
• US hands palace of Saddam back to Iraqis
• Anger as terrorist gets bail for IVF