Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić has been told by a in The Hague that he will spend the rest of life in prison after an appeal failed to overturn his 2016 conviction for genocide.
The five judges at the UN court upheld the 2016 verdict almost in its entirety, dismissing all but one of Karadžić’s appeals as “mere disagreement” with the court’s conclusions rather than valid legal objections.
What’s more, the judges increased the 40-year jail term handed down in 2016 to life in prison.
At the launch of his appeal Mr Karadžić said his conviction was based on “rumours”.
Mr Karadzic was found guilty on 10 counts of genocide, war crimes and other atrocities, including planning the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995, in which Bosnian Serb soldiers slaughtered nearly 8,000 Muslim men and boys in a so-called safe haven protected by Dutch peacekeeping forces. The massacre was the worst atrocity in Europe since World War II.
There were loud cheers from the public gallery in the court on March 20 when the verdict was read out by Judge Vagn Prüsse Joensen.
Mr Karadžić has been held at The Hague since his capture in Belgrade in 2008. His appeal is expected to be one of the last war crimes cases from Bosnian War the court will deal with.