Court finds Radovan Karadzic guilty of genocide

Photo of Radovan Karadzic taken in 1994 by Mikhail Evstafiev. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons.

Former Bosnia Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, 70, has been found guilty of genocide and nine other charges and has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague found Mr. Karadzic guilty of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, where Serb forces executed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys – the worst mass murder in Europe since the Holocaust.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein welcomed the verdict against Radovan Karadzic.

“Twenty-one years after Karadzic was indicted, this verdict is a forceful manifestation of the international community’s implacable commitment to accountability,” said Mr. Al Hussein in a press release. 

“His judgment is symbolically powerful – above all for the victims of the crimes committed during the wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and across the former Yugoslavia, but also for victims across the world. No matter how powerful they are, no matter how untouchable they imagine themselves to be, no matter what continent they inhabit, the perpetrators of such crimes must know that they will not escape justice. Having witnessed first hand the effect of the horrific crimes for which Karadzic has been convicted, I welcome the findings of the Tribunal," said Mr. Al Hussein.

Mr. Karadzic’s lawyers say they will appeal the verdict.

Memorial and cemetery, Srebrenica. Photo by Peter Dudley

Memorial and cemetery, Srebrenica. Photo by Peter Dudley