Karadzic Appeal Over Revived Genocide Charge Rejected
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The Hague Tribunal has dismissed Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic’s appeal against the reinstatement of a charge of genocide in seven Bosnian municipalities in 1992.
The Tribunal’s appeals chamber decided on Thursday to reject Karadzic’s appeal, with presiding judge Theodor Meron saying that the court must hear all the evidence and consider the possibility of his guilt.
In June 2012, the trial chamber ruled that the prosecution had not presented sufficient evidence to find Karadzic guilty of genocide in seven municipalities – Bratunac, Foca, Kljuc, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Vlasenica and Zvornik – in 1992.
But in July this year, the international court’s appeals chamber decided that the overturning of the genocide charge was mistaken, and ordered it to be reinstated.
As the wartime president of Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska and supreme commander of its army, Karadzic is on trial for genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war.
He is being tried for genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, the expulsion of Bosniaks and Croats across Bosnia and Herzegovina, terrorising civilians in Sarajevo and taking international peacekeepers hostage.
His trial will resume on October 28 after a two-month break which he was given to get ready to face the reinstated 1992 genocide charges.
