Bosnian wartime commander arrested for extortion

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Bosnian police arrested Muslim wartime commander Naser Oric on extortion charges, three months after a U.N. war crimes tribunal overturned his conviction for failing to stop the murder of Bosnian Serbs.

The police said Saturday they detained three people after finding a significant quantity of weapons and ammunition during raids on apartments in Sarajevo and the northern town of Tuzla.

"They are suspected of having extorted money over the last few years after lending it at excessively high monthly interest," a police statement said.

Oric, who organised the defence of the eastern enclave of Srebrenica during the 1992-95 war, was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes against Bosnian Serbs.

The Hague-based court acquitted him of all charges last July, a move that angered the Bosnian Serbs who see the tribunal as biased against them.

The police said they placed Oric and two others in the custody of the Sarajevo judiciary.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Louise Ireland)