He has asked for a haircut and a shave, Vujacic said. “Today I expect to see him with his hair short and no beard.”

Vujacic said he would formally appeal against Karadzic’s extradition order on Friday, when a legal deadline expires, to allow his family to spend more time with him, if they are allowed to leave Bosnia.

Karadzic’s wife and two children have been banned from leaving Bosnia under measures meant to choke off Karadzic’s support network. It is up to Bosnia’s peace overseer, Miroslav Lajcak, to give them permission to travel to Serbia.

Most Serbs see the Hague tribunal as biased against their nation, and having an agenda to give them the lion’s share of the blame for the conflict.

He had planned to turn himself in January 2009 because that is when the Hague tribunal is due to stop launching new trials, his brother Luka Karadzic said.

It would be more fair if he could be tried in Serbia with the presence of an international judge.

The arrest, two weeks into the term of Serbia’s new government, is a great success for the coalition of the pro-Western Democrats and the Socialist Party founded by late strongman Slobodan Milosevic, a onetime backer of Karadzic.

The EU has called the arrest a milestone on Serbia’s road to joining the EU but said Belgrade must go further to reap the full benefits, by arresting Karadzic’s military chief Ratko Mladic, who is wanted on the same charges.

Inside Serbia, the reaction has been muted. Government ministers have kept quiet, fearing a backlash from hardline nationalists who see Karadzic and Mladic as heroes.