Radovan Karadzic was trying to cure a four-year-old boy with autism in the weeks leading up to his capture, his female companion revealed yesterday as she denied being the mistress of the war crimes fugitive during his double life as a New Age healer.

Dr Karadzic, 63, the former Bosnian Serb leader, will appeal today against his extradition to The Hague but will leave it to the last minute, his lawyer said, in a delaying tactic indicating that he intends to draw out his trial in a manner similar to that adopted by his mentor, Slobodan Milosevic.

Although a demonstration against the extradition is planned by ultranationalists in Belgrade, the new Serbian Government showed its confidence yesterday by returning its ambassadors to EU countries that recognised the independence of the breakaway republic of Kosovo.

The diplomatic move added to the impression that the arrest of Dr Karadzic on Monday was timed carefully to demonstrate the pro-Western credentials of the two-week-old Government and its determination to join the EU as soon as possible.

Mila Damjanov, a 53-year-old unemployed divorcée, gave more details about Dr Karadzic’s extraordinary life on the run yesterday and her relationship with the heavily bearded guru that she knew as Dragan Dabic. “I was never in a loving relationship with Radovan Karadzic,” Ms Damjanov told Kurir newspaper, adding that she first met him when he gave an inspirational lecture on quantum energy seven or eight months ago.

Neighbours and others on the alternative health circuit had described how they often saw the pair together, holding hands or arm in arm. “He was just my friend and my teacher because I was always interested in alternative medicine,” said Ms Damjanov, who lives with her son in Belgrade. “They said that we were holding hands. But if they have a photograph of this, why didn’t they use it? They say that we hugged, but you can hug your friend.”

She described how she became his student and began to visit an autistic boy being treated by “Dr Dabic” using his bioenergy techniques. “He was four years old and he was totally in his own world,” she said. “At first the child did not recognise his father or mother and did not talk. After four months this boy started talking and he is now back in this world.”

Ms Damjanov said that she last saw Dr Karadzic last Friday, the day that his lawyer claims he was arrested illegally and held for three days before the Serb authorities announced his capture. “He said that he had to travel on Friday evening to the seaside for two weeks,” she said. “He told me in these two weeks to continue to work with the boy.”

Svetozar Vujacic, Dr Karadzic’s lawyer, claimed that the story about a relationship with Ms Damjanov was put about to drive a wedge between him and his wife, Ljiljana, and their children.

Mr Vujacic yesterday filed a writ against three unknown persons that he said had seized Dr Karadzic on the No 73 bus last Friday and held him for three days at a secret location. The lawyer said that he had five witnesses from the bus to support the story.

Mr Vujacic said that Dr Karadzic was well treated during the missing three days and suggested that he might have been taken by bounty-hunters seeking the reward of $5 million (£2.5 million) put up by the US for his capture. The reward remains unclaimed and the Serb authorities deny the allegations.

Another mystery about Dr Karadzic’s double life was solved yesterday when his assumed identity of Dragan Dabic was disclosed to have been stolen from a pensioner in the northern Serbian town of Ruma.

“We can confirm that all the data in the personal ID of Dragan Dabic, starting from the personal registry and serial number to the issue date, are identical to those in the ID card used by Karadzic,” said Rasim Ljajic, the government official in charge of cooperation with The Hague tribunal.

The ID used by Dr Karadzic was issued on April 20, 1999, he said. The real Dragan Dabic was born in 1942 and was questioned by police on Monday but said that he had no knowledge that Dr Karadzic had assumed his identity. “My only similarity with Karadzic is that I have two children and four grandchildren,” Mr Dabic said, adding that he was “uncomfortable” that his home had been besieged by media crews.

Croatian media reported that Dr Karadzic had used the fake identity to travel to the Adriatic coastal town of Ciovo in 2006, where he spent ten days in a holiday apartment on his own. Dr Karadzic also used his false ID to visit a monastery in Greece where he studied traditional meditative techniques, according to the Politika newspaper.

A former close collaborator of Dr Karadzic claimed yesterday that he had a written agreement with Madeleine Albright, the former US Secretary of State, and Richard Holbrooke, the UN peace negotiator in Bosnia, promising protection if he resigned from his office in 1995. Aleksa Buha, the Foreign Minister in Dr Karadzic’s government, said that the West had reneged on the deal.

Last night Ms Albright told The Times that Mr Buha’s allegations were “categorically false and ridiculous”.

Mr Holbrooke also described the claim as totally false, and part of a misinformation campaign. “Both Madeleine Albright and I have repeatedly explained, including in testimony to Congress, that no such deal was ever made. It would have been immoral, improper and illegal,” Mr Holbrooke told The Times.

Quest for justice

161 indictments issued by International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

115 cases concluded

3,500 number of witnesses called so far

56 convicted and sentenced

27 people currently on trial

16 died awaiting trial

2 of the indicted at large — Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic

Source: International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?