Karadzic to begin defense at war crimes court October 16, 2012 - 10:40 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is to begin his defense at a war crimes court in The Hague, according to BBC News. Karadzic will defend himself against 10 charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in the 1990s. He has denied the charges, including one related to a massacre by Bosnian Serb troops at Srebrenica in July 1995. Police arrested Karadzic in 2008 on a bus in Belgrade after he had been on the run for almost 13 years. Karadzic, 67, went on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in October 2009. The single genocide charge against him relates to the deaths of more than 7,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. It was the worst atrocity in Europe since the end of World War II. He is also being prosecuted over the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, in which more than 12,000 civilians died. At the hearing on Tuesday, Oct 16, Karadzic is expected to give a lengthy personal statement and to call as a first witness Col Andrey Demurenko, a Russian, who was chief of staff of the UN peacekeeping force in Sarajevo in 1995. He is also expected to be questioned about the shelling of a market in Sarajevo in August 1995. In June, Karadzic had one charge of genocide - related to the forcible expulsion of hundreds of thousands of non-Serbs from towns and villages in Bosnia - dismissed. But he failed in his attempt to have the other charges against him dropped. He has claimed that he did not know what was taking place on the ground. Former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic is also on trial at The Hague. Partner news  Top stories Among its provisions are bans on child marriage and the traditional practice of selling and buying women to settle disputes. Jorge Rafael Videla, an austere former army commander, led Argentina during the bloodiest days of its Dirty War dictatorship. According to the United Nations, April was Iraq's bloodiest month for almost five years, with 712 people killed. Reports suggest the rebel fighters may have tried to blow up the walls of the prison, which holds some 4,000 inmates.   Partner news |  Latest news John Lennon’s guitar auctioned for $408,000  The custom-made instrument, built in 1966 by the VOX company, was bought by an unidentified U.S. buyer in New York.Benicio del Toro’s “Jimmy P” debuts in Cannes main competition The film is telling of the relationship between a troubled native American vet and his equally idiosyncratic therapist.Weinstein’s RADiUS nabs cult helmer’s "Blue Ruin" at Cannes The story centers on a man who finds his quiet life upended by unwelcome news and sets off for his childhood home to carry out an act of revenge.Iran executes two spies convicted of working for Israel, U.S. Iran has in the past said it had successfully detected and dismantled spy networks operating inside the country. |
