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Former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic’s lawyer Peter Robinson told BIRN that the UN-backed Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals’ decision this week to allow Hague detainees to make online video calls was “humane”.
“The ability of detainees such as Karadzic to see their families on a video call, instead of just speaking to them on the telephone, would be a great boost to their spirits while in detention. It is a humane and practical step to allow such calls, which can be done over the internet at no cost,” said Robinson.
Karadzic’s daughter Sonja Karadzic-Jovicevic, who is a lawmaker in the Bosnian Serb parliament, told BIRN that Skype will allow for better communication.
“The current communication is only by phone and only one-way. My father can only call me from the detention unit. The connection is poor and very expensive. Skype will allow for cheaper communication and in a controlled environment, which is OK, since they have to record all of the conversations,” said Karadzic-Jovicevic.
The president of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals, Theodor Meron, said on Wednesday that Karadic’s defence’s request to enable defendants to communicate with their families via Skype will be approved soon.
Defendants can currently see their relatives if they visit the UN detention centre in the Netherlands, or talk to them on the phone if they purchase phone cards, but both are expensive.
“Enabling communication via Skype is a big thing that will help all the detainees, particularly when it comes to contacts with their families, because you know they are paying for those contacts and communications via telephone cards on the basis of market prices,” said lawyer Miodrag Stojanovic, a member of former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s defence team.
The spokeswoman for the Mechanism for International Tribunals, Helena Eggleston, said the options were still being considered.
“I think it is too early for me to be able to confirm the information on what type of Skype will be used. We do not know whether it will be Skype or some other type of video conferencing. We are certainly working on it, but we are not in the phase where we could offer more concrete information,” Eggleston said.
In March 2016, the UN court sentenced Karadzic to 40 years in prison for genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, the persecution of Bosniaks and Croats, terrorising the population of Sarajevo and taking UN peacekeepers hostage.
He has appealed and the court is planning to hand down its final verdict in December this year.
Mladic was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2017 for the same crimes. He has also appealed and the final verdict in his case is expected in 2019.
