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Karadzic trial shows bias and politicization of UN tribunal — Russian Foreign Ministry

Earlier, the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in The Hague has increased Karadzic’s sentence to life in prison

MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. The court proceedings in the case of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic have shown the bias and politicization of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) in The Hague, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

Earlier, the IRMCT has increased Karadzic’s sentence to life in prison in response to his appeal of the 2016 verdict, which sentenced him to 40 years behind bars for war crimes and genocide.

Read also

Hague court toughens sentence against ex-Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic to life imprisonment

"The summary published on the website shows serious discrepancies, which have been noted in the Karadzic trial since its very beginning. The evidence base causes serious doubts," the ministry stressed. "However, the Mechanism has inherited the vices of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and decided to ignore these circumstances, blindly following its anti-Serbian agenda and once again demonstrating the bias and politicization of the ICTY-IRMCT tandem," the Russian Foreign Ministry concluded.

The ministry stressed that "such selective methods not only show the bias and ineffectiveness of the ICTY and the IRMCT, but also discredit the very idea of international criminal justice." "By the UN standards, these bodies have received significant funding, they were expected to aid the transnational peace in the Balkans. However, in the end, there is no contribution to even talk about," the ministry noted, adding that the Mechanism is a temporary institution, which has to close its proceedings after reviewing all cases left over from the ICTY.

Karadzic trial

Karadzic, the former leader of the Bosnian Serbs, spent 13 years as a fugitive before being captured by Serbian intelligence services in a Belgrade suburb in July 2008. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) launched a trial against him in October 2009. In March 2016, Karadzic was found guilty on 10 out of 11 counts, particularly concerning the Srebrenica massacre, and sentenced to 40 years in prison. Karadzic’s defense earlier requested that his 40-year prison sentence be overturned and the case be reviewed.

In response to the appeal, the court has increased Karadzic’s sentence to life in prison on March 20.

The Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals was set up by the United Nations Security Council to complete the work initiated by the ICTY (which closed its proceedings on December 31, 2017) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (closed on December 31, 2015).

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