A U.N. spokesman says ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is in the custody of the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in the Netherlands.

Spokesman Liam McDowall confirms Karadzic is at the U.N. detention center near The Hague, where he will stand trial for genocide.

The confirmation came Wednesday shortly after a helicopter landed behind the high wall of the jail while another helicopter hovered overhead. Two black minivans drove through the prison gates moments earlier.

Karadzic faces 11 counts including genocide, extermination and persecution in the 1992-1995 Bosnian wars. Prosecutors allege he masterminded atrocities including the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica and the deadly siege of Sarajevo.