Croatian Serb rebel leader Goran Hadzic, tried by a United Nations war crimes court over his role in the 1991-1995 war in Croatia, has died at the age of 57.

Serbia's state-run Tanjug news agency quoted the regional hospital in the country's northern Autonomous Province of Vojvodina as saying that Hadzic died on July 12 "after a severe illness."

Hadzic had faced 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity over his alleged involvement in the forced removal and murder of thousands of non-Serb civilians from Croatia between 1991 and 1993.

In April, judges at the Hague-based International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced that they had ordered an indefinite halt to the trial of Hadzic as he battled the advanced stages of terminal brain cancer.

He had been arrested in Serbia in 2011 after seven years on the run and his trial had started in October 2012.

Prosecutors finished presenting their case against Hadzic in November 2013 and Hadzic had just started his defense when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2014.

Based on reporting by AFP, Tanjug, and Balkan Insight

