Milosevic extradition process begins

Supporters of Milosevic rallied outside the prison where he is being held on Sunday

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- The Serbian government has asked a court to begin extradition proceedings against former president Slobodan Milosevic.

The request puts Milosevic one step closer to a trial on war crimes charges before a tribunal in The Hague.

CNN's Alessio Vinci said the move could mean that Milosevic could find himself in The Hague in just three weeks' time.

He said: "If the judges rule in favour, Milosevic's lawyers have eight days to appeal. Then the Constitutional Court will have two weeks to make a final ruling."

AUDIO CNN's Alessio Vinci: Yugoslav government is under pressure 1.31 MB / 1 min 2 secs AIFF or WAV sound

The request comes the same day Milosevic's lawyers launched a challenge to the legality of a government decree issued on Saturday.

That decree allowed Milosevic's extradition to face war crimes charges at the United Nations court.

VIDEO Yugoslavia polarised by Milosevic debate (June 24) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Attorneys for the former Yugoslav president asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the decree and to declare it unconstitutional.

"We will write a complaint, on basis of the legality of this decree. With a suggestion to prevent the validity of this decree, until the decision is made about the constitutional legality of this decree," his chief counsel Toma Fila said.

The legal team, which made its formal request on Monday morning, were asking for the decree to be suspended until a ruling is made.

The Yugoslav Cabinet voted on Saturday to approve the decree that sets the terms for the extradition of war crimes suspects -- including Milosevic -- to The Hague. The vote was 8-1, with seven Cabinet members refusing to attend the session.

Fila met with his client on Sunday morning at the Belgrade Central Prison. The lawyer said Milosevic was surprised by the decree and said he believed it was not in accordance with Yugoslavia's constitution.

"He read a decree in the newspapers, and gave us instructions, to the whole defence team," Fila said.

The Yugoslav government was under tremendous pressure to pass the extradition decree.

Up to $1 billion in reconstruction money and rescheduling of much of the country's nearly $12 billion in foreign debt are to be discussed next week at a donors' conference in Brussels.

The U.S. and other institutions had threatened to boycott that meeting if the Yugoslav government did not move on war crimes suspects in Serbia. Milosevic was arrested in April and has been detained in Belgrade pending an investigation into allegations of corruption and abuse of power during his 13-year rule.

The U.N. tribunal issued an arrest warrant for Milosevic last October to face charges of crimes against humanity.

Milosevic was indicted in 1999 for the crackdown carried out by security forces in Kosovo against ethnic Albanians before NATO's air war.

In recent weeks, investigators have uncovered mass graves in Serbia containing bodies of ethnic Albanians that were believed killed in Kosovo, moved to Serbia and hidden from investigators.

Currently, the Yugoslav constitution does not allow for the extradition of its citizens. Many Yugoslav officials have said Yugoslavia did not need a law to extradite citizens because the country signed the Dayton peace accord in 1995, which set up the War Crimes Tribunal.