Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity Republika Srpska will spend 20,460 euros of public funds to cover the personal expenses incurred by war crimes defendants Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and others.
The UN court in The Hague found Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj not guilty of crimes against humanity including murder, persecution and expulsions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.
The Hague Tribunal granted early release to French journalist Hartmann, its former prosecution spokesperson who was arrested over an unpaid fine for publishing secret court information.
Balkans expert Eric Gordy examines questions raised by the Radovan Karadzic verdict, asking why he was convicted of responsibility for genocide in 1995, but acquitted of the same crime in 1992.
During Radovan Karadzic’s marathon trial, the prosecution brought witnesses to prove he was guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, while testimony from the defence disputed the crimes or tried to show he wasn’t responsible.
In a defiant interview before his trial verdict, wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic insists that ‘no reasonable court’ would convict him of genocide and war crimes, despite the evidence against him.
For his relatives in his home village of Petnjica in Montenegro, Radovan Karadzic is not a war criminal but a local boy who made good and strived to protect the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Hague Tribunal has legal precedents for some of the charges against Radovan Karadzic, but allegations that genocide was committed in 1992 and UN peacekeepers were taken hostage have never been proven by the court.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic evaded capture for over a decade because international forces and the Serbian authorities were unwilling and then unable to arrest him, says British author Julian Borger.
The UN court in The Hague said Serbian Radical Party leader Vojislav Seselj does not have to be present for his war crimes verdict this month, despite its previous demand for him to return.