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Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic found guilty of genocide

A UN court has found Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity over his rol...
Newstalk
Newstalk

15.02 24 Mar 2016


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Former Bosnian Serb leader Rad...

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic found guilty of genocide

Newstalk
Newstalk

15.02 24 Mar 2016


Share this article


A UN court has found Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity over his role in the Bosnian war, sentencing him to 40 years jail.

The former Bosnian Serb leader faced 11 charges arising out of the 1992-1995 conflict, which claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people and displaced 2.2 million others.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague, found him guilty of 10 of those charges - including genocide.

However, the court decided Karadzic "is not held responsible" for the remaining charge of genocide.

After spending more than an hour-and-a-half reading out the court's judgement, Presiding Judge O-Gon Kwon announced a jail sentence of 40 years.

Karadzic, who is now 70, is one of the highest ranking officials to be tried by the Tribunal.

Speaking before the judgement was read out, Karadzic said he expected to be “acquitted”, adding that “there is no reasonable court that would convict me”.

The first indictment against Karadzic was announced in 1995, prompting an international arrest warrant to be issued the following year.

It wasn’t until 2008 that he was eventually caught by Serbian authorities in Belgrade.

Karadzic refused to enter a plea in response to the charges, so a plea of not guilty was entered on his behalf.

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