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UN Tribunal Reinstates Genocide Charge Against Karadzic


Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic appears at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic appears at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
The UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia has reinstated a genocide charge against Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic after an appeal by the prosecution.

The decision on July 11 reversed Karadzic's acquittal last year on one of two genocide charges he faces.

Presiding judge Theodore Meron read out the ruling to Karadzic, telling him that the original ruling had "erred in fact" when it concluded that "a reasonable trial" could not be satisfied for the genocide indictment.

Karadzic's defense council, Peter Robinson, told reporters that his client does not intend to accept the decision and will contest it.

"Dr. Karadzic will be asking the Trial Chamber to allow him to call additional witnesses, so that he can rebut the prosecution case that has now been found sufficient to go forward," he said.

Karadzic faces 10 other charges, including another genocide count for allegedly masterminding the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

The ruling came as tens of thousands of people gathered in the Bosnian village of Srebrenica to rebury 409 newly identified victims of the massacre.

July 11 marked the 18th anniversary of the worst slaughter on European soil since the Nazi era.

In July 1995, Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN-protected village and executed more than 8,000 men and boys within days.


With reporting by AP and AFP
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