Ex-Serb leader seeks dismissal of trial
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THE HAGUE - A former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, filed a 140-page motion yesterday arguing that charges against him tied to the 1992-1995 Bosnia war should be dropped because he was promised immunity by a top US official.
Karadzic, arrested and brought to the tribunal for former Yugoslavia last year after 11 years on the run, has said since his arrival that a former US peace mediator, Richard Holbrooke, offered him immunity in 1996 if he disappeared from public life.
"If the Trial Chamber finds that the Holbrooke agreement is binding on the Tribunal, it should order that the indictment be dismissed," Karadzic and his lawyer said in the motion.
Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs during the war, faces two charges of genocide over the 43-month siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.
Holbrooke has repeatedly denied the existence of a deal, describing Karadzic's claim as "no more than another lie from the most evil man in Europe."
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has said that even if one exists, it would not give Karadzic immunity from prosecution.
Peter Robinson, Karadzic's legal adviser, said he was confident the tribunal would hold an evidentiary hearing and that it would reconsider grounds for a trial.
"We're hoping that when it has all the facts before them . . . that they will see things differently," Robinson told reporters.
