Karadzic defence opens as Hadzic trial begins

by admin
Oct 13, 2012
Former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic is due to start his defence at the Hague this week, as the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia is set to try their last suspect, Goran Hadzic.

Karadzic's legal adviser Peter Robinson told AFP,
“He will expose his personal views on the crimes listed in the indictment,”
Robinson went on to add,
“what he challenges is the scale of the massacre... He (Karadzic) does not know how many people were killed, but according to him it’s certainly not 7,000,”
“No policy was implemented (at Srebrenica), he did not know prisoners would be executed.”
Previously Karadzic sought a dismissal of all charges brought against him, claiming that he was neither responsible for what had taken place in Srebrenica, and denied that it was a genocide.

See our earlier post: Karadzic calls for dismissal of genocide charges (12 June 2012)

The ICTY’s chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz told AFP,
“The reality is that Karadzic and Mladic 15 years ago played a very important role and nobody wanted to arrest them... many people in Serbia still consider them heroes and not war criminals.”
Meanwhile 54-year old Goran Hadzic, the ICTY's last suspect is due to start his trial for 14 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

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