Ex-bosnian Serb leader has war crimes sentence increased to life
● Applause heard at judge’s decision ● Disgraced leader urges no violence
Nations appeals judges have upheld the convictions of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and increased his sentence from 40 years to life imprisonment.
Karadzic showed almost no reaction as presiding judge Vagn Joensen of Denmark yesterday read out a damning judgment that means the 73-year-old former Bosnian strongman is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
He had appealed against his 2016 convictions for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as his sentence for masterminding atrocities in his country’s devastating 1992-95 war – Europe’s bloodiest conflict since the Second World War.
The former leader is one of the most senior figures tried by The Hague war crimes court.
His case is considered as key in delivering justice for the victims of the conflict, which left more than 100,000 people dead and millions homeless.
Judge Joensen said Karadzic’s original 40-year sentence, handed down in 2016, “underestimates the extraordinary gravity of Karadzic’s responsibility and his integral participation in the most egregious of crimes”.
Karadzic’s lawyer, Peter Robinson, said the disgraced leader accepted “moral responsibility” for the suffering in the war. But he said Karadzic insisted after the hearing that “politics triumphed over justice today”. “The appeals chamber whitewashed an unjust trial and an unfair verdict,” Mr Robinson said.
Applause broke out in the public gallery as Judge Joensen passed the new sentence. Families of victims who travelled to The Hague welcomed the verdict.
Mothers of victims, some elderly, wept with apparent relief after watching the rulunited
ing read on a screen in Srebrenica – the eastern Bosnian town that witnessed the war’s bloody climax when Serb forces slaughtered some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in 1995.
Similar scenes were seen in Sarajevo City Hall, which was rebuilt after being destroyed during the Bosnian war by Serb shelling.
Mr Robinson said Karadzic urged his supporters back home to avoid any violent reaction.
Karadzic is one of the most senior figures tried by The
Hague war crimes court. His case was considered as key in delivering justice for victims.
Amnesty International’s Europe deputy director, Massimo Moratti, said: “This verdict demonstrates that war criminals cannot hide from justice and that impunity will not be tolerated.
“It also offers a measure of justice for Karadzic’s victims, who have waited more than 24 years for this day.”
Karadzic’s wartime military commander, General Ratko Mladic, is also await- ing an appeal judgment of his genocide and war crimes conviction, which earned him a life sentence. Both men were convicted of genocide for their roles in the Srebrenica massacre.
Last week, Bosnian war wounds were revived when it was revealed the suspect in the mosque shootings that left at least 50 people dead in New Zealand appeared to show admiration for Karadzic and his legacy. In a video, the selfproclaimed white supremacist is seen driving apparently on his way to the attack and listening to a wartime Bosnian Serb song praising Karadzic and his fight against Bosnia’s Muslims.
Prosecutors had appealed Karadzic’s acquittal on a second count of genocide, which saw Serb forces drive out Muslims and Croats from Serbcontrolled villages in a 1992 campaign. Judges on Wednesday rejected that appeal.
Karadzic has always argued that the Bosnian Serb campaigns during the war, which included the bloody siege of the capital, Sarajevo, were aimed at defending Serbs.