A United Nations court on Wednesday denied Radovan Karadzic’s motion to have war-crimes charges against him dropped, arguing that any immunity deal promised to the former Bosnian-Serb leader was irrelevant to his trial.
”The chamber is of the view that the accused has failed to establish his abuse-of-process claim,” the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said in its 30-page ruling.
In May, Karadzic filed a motion arguing that charges against him relating to the 1992 to 1995 Bosnia war should be dropped because former US peace mediator Richard Holbrooke offered him immunity in 1996 if he disappeared from public life.
Holbrooke has repeatedly denied the existence of any deal, describing Karadzic’s claim as ”no more than another lie from the most evil man in Europe”.
The leader of the Bosnian-Serbs during the war was arrested and brought to the tribunal in The Hague last year after 11 years on the run. He faces two charges of genocide over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of 8 000 Muslims at Srebrenica.
The tribunal, which had already said that any immunity agreement would not give Karadzic immunity from prosecution, ruled that Karadzic had failed to show Holbrooke had acted on the authority of the United Nations Security Council.
The tribunal also said that Karadzic had ”failed to show that any abuse of process has taken place.”
Karadzic had previously refused to enter a plea during pre-trial proceedings, but a in a pre-trial brief lodged with the court last week, said he was not guilty of all charges.
Karadzic would face life in prison if convicted of the 11 charges against him, which include genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. — Reuters