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Former Bosnian Serb leader Karadzic renews ICTY immunity claim

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Former Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic on Monday filed a motion renewing his claim that that International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) should drop charges against him because of a deal he made with former US ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrooke. Karadzic has claimed that Holbrooke promised him immunity from prosecution if he voluntarily left power in 1996. Karadzic alleged there were two first hand witnesses to the agreement, former Bosnian Serb assembly speaker Momcilo Krajisnik and foreign minister Aleksa Buha, and asked the court to hold an evidentiary hearing on the matter. He also argued that even if Holbrooke lacked actual authority to make the deal, that Karadzic reasonably relied on his apparent authority to do so, and that it should be honored.  In April 2009, the appeals chamber of the ICTY upheld a December 2008 ruling that there was no valid immunity deal  between Karadzic and Holbrooke, and that even if such an agreement had existed, it would not be valid under international law. Holbrooke has denied Karadzic's allegations and prosecutors say they have found no documents that verify any such deal existed. Karadzic has twice refused to enter pleas to 11 charges against him, including genocide, murder, persecution, deportation, and "other inhumane acts," for war crimes allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. Karadzic was originally indicted by the ICTY in 1995, but had been in hiding under an assumed identity until his arrest last year.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on May 25, 2009 (boomark / email).