Karadzic: Clerical Mistake
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The Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY, rejected the Prosecution’s motion for additional time to file the amended indictment against Radovan Karadzic, with which they would provide additional evidence regarding the murder of 140 prisoners in the Susica detention camp in Vlasenica.
However, the Trial Chamber indicated in its decision that this issue would be discussed at a status conference, to be held on February 20, 2009.
Karadzic, wartime President of Republika Srpska and Supreme Commander of the RS Armed Forces, is charged with genocide committed in 10 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Srebrenica, as well as a large number of crimes committed in 27 municipalities.
After the Court rendered a decision on February 17, partially accepting the indictment against Karadzic and ordering removal of certain “incidents” due to lack of evidence, the Prosecution asked for more time to provide the necessary evidence.
The Hague Prosecution alleges that these pieces of evidence have not been submitted due to “a clerical mistake”, adding that the Susica “incident” is an important part of the Prosecution’s case. It further says that, due to these facts, the Court should allow the Prosecution to “correct the oversight in order to prevent injustice”.
“The incident in Susica is a significant example of planned murders. As indicated by additional documents, there were a large number of victims. Besides that, these mass murders were committed a few hours after the indictee had given a speech at a funeral in Vlasenica, attended by a ‘bitter and emotional’ group of people,” the Prosecution’s motion says.
The Court previously rendered a decision ordering the Prosecution to file, by February 18, a revised indictment, from which the allegations pertaining to the murder of 11 men in the “Petar Kocic” school building in Bosanska Krupa Municipality, the murder of 37 men from Kasindolska Street in Sarajevo and the murder of about 140 prisoners in Susica detention camp, in Vlasenica Municipality, would be removed because “adequate evidence” has not been provided.
“Allowing the Prosecution to correct this mistake would prevent injustice towards numerous victims of this incident, who deserve to see the indictee’s responsibility determined, if he was indeed responsible for that,” the Prosecution argues.
As per the Court’s order, the Prosecution filed a revised indictment on February 18. The new indictment does not contain the allegations pertaining to the murder of around 140 people in Susica.
