Belgrade braced itself for a show of force today by thousands of Serb nationalists opposed to the extradition of Radovan Karadzic, as more details emerged of the wartime leader's recent career as a New Age healer.

In a further twist to the story of how Dr Karadzic morphed into the mysterious Dr Dragan Dabic, a 78-year-old man came forward yesterday to claim that his persona was stolen by the fugitive. Petar Glumac, a bearded faith healer who looks almost identical to Dr Dabic and lives in northern Serbia, said that he had travelled throughout Austria, Croatia and Serbia treating thousands of patients, accounting for a number of false sightings.

“Radovan Karadzic stole my image,” Mr Glumac said. “I could not and I will not change my character, I have been like this for years. Karadzic could have seen me in the newspapers and took my character as his identity.”

The true identity of Dr Dabic was allegedly confirmed by DNA from some of his hair that was obtained by secret agents posing as a couple with fertility problems who needed his “bio-energy” treatment, according to a police source, who added that up to 50 agents had been tracking the fugitive after a tip-off.

Dr Karadzic, 63, is days away from being sent for trial on genocide charges in The Hague. He faces 11 counts of war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia including genocide charges relating to the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995, and to the siege of Sarajevo which left 12,000 dead.

Serb police said that they had searched Dr Karadzic's flat and found minutes of meetings from the 1990s of military chiefs of staff from the self-proclaimed Bosnian Serb republic which could contain clues about his involvement in wartime atrocities.

As the capital prepared for tonight's show of support, which is likely to turn into a march on the President's residence or the heavily protected court house holding the former Bosnian Serb leader, Dr Karadzic's lawyer admitted to delaying his appeal against extradition to keep him in Serbia for the event. Once his appeal is received by the court in Belgrade, a panel of judges will have up to three days to consider it and a final decision must then be made by the Government.

Svetozar Vujacic, Dr Karadzic's lawyer, claimed that the legal system allowed for five days' delivery time beyond the deadline for making the appeal which passed last Friday. “Technically I could have had this appeal posted from Sydney and they would have to wait for it to arrive,” Mr Vujacic said. “I would not rule out that my appeal grows a beard and moustache before it gets here.” He added: “The authorities are using all illegal means to try to send him to The Hague before the rally.”

The rally is being organised by the ultra-nationalist Radical Party, which is bussing sympathisers into the capital from across Serbia and the Serb area of Bosnia and said it would provide 2,000 private security guards.

Dragan Karadzic, the 30-year-old nephew of Dr Karadzic, who claims to have been his main point of contact for the past six years, detailed the code words yesterday that they used in text messages to conceal identities from the secret service.

“We called Radovan's son Beckham because he likes football,” said Mr Karadzic, who faces two years in prison for helping a war crimes suspect.

“We called his brother Hitler. When I noticed I was being followed I wrote him a text message saying ‘I have a virus' meaning I wouldn't be able to come.”

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