"I plead not guilty," said Hadzic at a plea entry hearing at the tribunal. Lasting only a dozen minutes, this hearing was one of the shortest at the ICTY.

During his second arraignment hearing in The Hague, Hadzic waved the reading of his indictment by the trial chamber's presiding judge.

On 25 July, during his initial appearance before the tribunal, Hadzic exercised his right not to enter a plea so the second arraignment hearing was set for today.

During the 1991-1995 Homeland Defence War in Croatia, Hadzic was the prime minister of the self-proclaimed Serbian Autonomous District Slavonia, Baranja and Western Srijem (SAO SBWS) and subsequently president of the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK).

Hadzic is charged according to individual as well as command responsibility with crimes against humanity. A 14-count indictment charges him with being a member of a joint criminal enterprise which Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic organised with the aim of forcibly and permanently removing Croats and other non-Serbs from one third of Croatia's territory, which was occupied by Serb rebels supported by Belgrade in the first half of the 1990s.

Hadzic was the last remaining fugitive of a total of 161 persons indicted by the Hague tribunal. He was arrested in Serbia on 20 July after being on the run for seven years. He was transferred to the UN tribunal from Belgrade two days later.

The tribunal appointed Zoran Zivanovic to act as Hadzic's lawyer. In the meantime Hadzic asked the tribunal to pay for his defence and approve his request for a counsel of his own choosing.