Serb lawyers demand Mladic help to clarify two soldier deaths

The lawyers want Mladic\'s testimony in the case of two soldiers who were murdered in a Belgrade army barracks on October 5, 2004, amid doubts expressed over the official version of what happened.

There was speculation that the soldiers were murdered because they had happened to spot Mladic - who was on the run from international investigators over alleged war crimes - in the army barracks.

An official investigation claimed that one soldier first shot dead the other for unknown reasons and then turned the gun on himself.

But an independent commission of investigators said the two were shot dead by a third person from close range. This scenario would fit into the speculation that the two soldiers were killed in order to eliminate them as witnesses in spotting Mladic.

Mladic, 69, was captured in a village outside Belgrade on Thursday after being on the run from justice for some 15 years. It is widely believed that for many years Mladic enjoyed the support of the Serbian army in managing to evade capture for so long.

On Friday, a Belgrade court ruled that Mladic could be extradited to The Hague to face trial proceedings in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Mladic has until Monday to appeal the ruling.