War criminal Karadzic to serve life sentence for genocide in UK prison

CGTN

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Bosnian Serbs follow news on television of Radovan Karadzic's trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Hercegovina, March 24, 2016. /Getty

Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, sentenced to life in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity for his role during the 1990s war in the former Yugoslavia, will be transferred to a UK prison to serve his term, the British government announced on Wednesday.

The 75-year-old was found guilty by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)in 2016of war crimes for the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, in which up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered. He was also convicted for the 44-month siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, and campaigns of ethnic cleansing against Croats and Muslims.

His sentence was extended to life in 2019.

"Radovan Karadzic is one of the few people to have been found guilty of genocide," UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said upon announcing the prison transfer.

"He was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians."

The UN's International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals confirmed that it had asked the UK to "enforce the sentence of Karadzic" and recommended that this be done "as expeditiously as possible."

A Bosnian Muslim woman touches the freshly dug grave of her father, a victim of Srebrenica genocide, at the cemetery in Potocari near Srebrenica, Bosnia and Hercegovina, July 11, 2020. /Getty

Karadzic is currently held in The Hague, where he was tried, but those who have been convicted are then transferred to another country to serve their sentence. A date for his transfer has yet to be set.

Karadzic is one of the most important leaders to be convicted for war crimes in relation to the ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, which left 100,000 people dead.

Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic died in detention in The Hague while awaiting a verdict in his own war crimes trial. Bosnia Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was sentenced in 2017 to life in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.

Karadzic went into hiding after the war and succeeded in evading capture for 13 years despite international attempts to catch him.

He was eventually caught in 2008 and put on trial in The Hague, where he was convicted on 10 counts, including genocide, extermination, deportation and other crimes against humanity.

Dubbed the "Butcher of Sarajevo," he is seen as responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. To many in his native Serbia, however, he remains a hero.

(With input from agencies)