Hadzic went to Russia twice and stayed there for several years, working and receiving money and support from people for whom he had made it possible during the war of the 1990s to engage in trade in the Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem regions of eastern Croatia, the daily Blic said, quoting an unnamed source close to the investigation.

"Those war profiteers became influential people and were paying back their debt to him," the source told Blic.

Initially, when he went into hiding, Hadzic also had a lot of support from people close to the former chief of the Serbian state security service SDB, Jovica Stanisic, and his deputy, Franko Simatovic.

"Hadzic went into hiding partly because if he had ended up before the Hague tribunal he would have defended himself by claiming that he only had formal authority as President of the Republic of Serbian Krajina in the territory of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem, which would have made the defence of Stanisic and Simatovic before the tribunal more difficult. That's why people close to these two former SDB chiefs were helping him evade arrest. His hiding was organised very professionally, much better than in the case of Ratko Mladic," Blic's source said.

The daily Politika said that Hadzic had been hiding in Russia and Belarus since 2003 and that a few days ago he came to Serbia to collect money. He was arrested by agents of the Serbian intelligence agency BIA who were following his financiers.

Unnamed sources told Politika how Hadzic managed to escape on July 13, 2004, only hours after the then chief prosecutor of the Hague tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, had brought to Belgrade a sealed indictment against him.

It has been found that a secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called "his friend Hadzic" to let him know that Del Ponte had left a copy of the indictment against him in the Ministry.

The daily Danas, quoting an anonymous source, said that Hadzic had used a false identity that had made it possible for him to move around freely.