The Hague — Lawyers representing wartime Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic have asked UN judges to overturn his conviction and 40-year jail sentence for genocide and demanded a retrial.

Karadzic was convicted two years ago for some of the worst war crimes committed as the former Yugoslavia broke apart in the 1990s, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed.

"We are here today to ask you to overturn Radovan Karadzic’s conviction and order a new trial," defence lawyer Peter Robinson told a panel of UN judges as two days of appeal hearings got under way.

In the court room a group of victims from the "Bosnian Mothers of Srebrenica" organisation watched Karadzic, 72, who looked healthy and resolute. He was seated behind his legal team.

Karadzic, who was arrested a decade ago after a years-long manhunt, was found guilty on 10 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for the brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia he oversaw as president of the breakaway Bosnian Serb Republic. His lawyers said his seven-year "out-of-control mega-trial" violated his rights to a fair hearing.

Karadzic would argue that the initial judgment was wrong in concluding that he was a member of a joint criminal enterprise to drive out non-Serbs from Serb-claimed territory in Bosnia and Croatia, his lawyers said. He would contest the charge that he supported the shelling of civilians during the siege of Sarajevo, they said.

Karadzic’s conviction was handed down by UN judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia which said he was "at the apex of power" of the Bosnian Serb military and political hierarchy when the atrocities were committed. The appeals hearing is being held at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which is handling UN war crimes cases for the Balkans and Rwanda. </s> Bosnian Serb wartime leader Karadzic appears for his appeals judgement at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia in The Hague Thomson Reuters By Stephanie van den Berg

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic will take the courtroom floor again on Monday when he contests his conviction for genocide and a 40-year prison sentence before U.N. appeals judges.

Karadzic was convicted in 2016 for some of the worst war crimes committed as the former Yugoslavia broke apart, including the 1995 Srebrenica massacre.

Now 72, Karadzic was found guilty on 10 counts of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for the brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia he oversaw as the president of the breakaway Bosnian Serb Republic.

He has filed 50 grounds of appeal in an effort to overturn his conviction and sentence. Acting as his own lawyer, with help of legal counsel, he has asked for the entire judgment to be reversed and for a "new and fair trial" to be ordered.

His conviction was handed down by U.N. judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) which said he was "at the apex of power" of the Bosnian Serb military and political hierarchy when atrocities were committed by his troops.

It was the last major verdict at the ICTY, which closed at the end of 2017.

The two-day appeals hearing will be held at the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (MICT), which is handling outstanding U.N. war crimes cases for the Balkans and Rwanda.

After Karadzic has presented his appeal on Monday, prosecutors are due to speak on Tuesday. A verdict is expected by the end of the year.

The prosecutors will appeal Karadzic's acquittal on a second count of genocide in various towns across Bosnia during the war of the 1990s. They will seek a life sentence.

In their verdict, judges said the 44-month siege of Sarajevo could not have happened without Karadzic; that he committed crimes against humanity in an attempt to purge Muslims and Croats from parts of Bosnia; and that he had intended to eliminate the Bosnian Muslim males of the town of Srebrenica. </s> This article is also available in: Shqip Macedonian Bos/Hrv/Srp

Appeals in Radovan Karadzic’s case are being heard by the UN’s Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals on Monday and Tuesday, with the former Bosnian Serb leader claiming his trial was a “flawed process” that “led to an unjust result”.

In his 238-page appeal brief, Karadzic details what he claims are “48 substantive and procedural errors” that allegedly led to his wrongful conviction for genocide and war crimes against non-Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina in March 2016. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The judgment should be reversed but if the appeals chamber upholds any part of the conviction, it should impose a lower sentence, Karadzic argues.

The prosecution is also appealing, asking the judges to increase Karadzic’s sentence to life imprisonment.

In March 2016, the three-judge panel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia unanimously determined Karadzic was the mastermind behind four joint criminal enterprises designed to permanently and forcibly remove non-Serbs from large parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to establish Serb dominance.

The former president of Republika Srpska was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica in 1995, the persecution of Croat and Bosniak civilians throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, a campaign of shelling and sniper attacks campaign against the population of Sarajevo intended to spread terror, and of taking UN peacekeepers hostage.

Karadzic was acquitted of a second charge of genocide against Bosniaks and Croats in seven other Bosnian municipalities in 1992 – Bratunac, Foca, Kljuc, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Vlasenica and Zvornik.

The judges’ conclusion that Karadzic did not possess the “genocidal intent” to destroy non-Serbs in these seven municipalities is the focus of the prosecution’s appeal against the first-instance judgment.

Most of Karadzic’s 50 grounds for appeal are procedural. He claims he “did not receive a fair trial” as a result of “the Trial Chamber’s failure to limit the scope of the amorphous indictment and to ensure that the prosecution complied with its disclosure obligations”.

The defence also alleged the court had “double standards” and favoured the prosecution.

While not directly challenging the judgment’s main factual findings about the crimes, the defence says that “the Trial Chamber’s reliance on debatable inferences, instead of solid evidence, to conclude that President Karadzic shared the common purpose of four separate JCEs [joint criminal enterprises], was an error that resulted in a miscarriage of justice”.

“Nowhere was this miscarriage of justice more apparent than when the Trial Chamber found him guilty of genocide by inferring that he shared the intent to kill the prisoners from Srebrenica based upon its own interpretation of a cryptic intercepted conversation. This inference is unsound and untrue and the verdict is unjust,” the defence says in its appeal.

The “cryptic intercepted conversation” referred to by the defence took place on July 13, 1995, when Karadzic was told by his envoy in Srebrenica, Miroslav Deronjic, that 2,000 prisoners from Srebrenica had arrived in nearby Bratunac and that more were expected.

According to Deronjic’s notes, Karadzic told him that “all the goods must be placed inside warehouses before 12 tomorow… not in the warehouses over there, but elsewhere”.

In its judgment, the Trial Chamber inferred that the “goods” were actually Bosniak prisoners who the Bosnian Serb Army, under Karadzic’s supreme command, transported to Zvornik the next day and subsequently executed “at least 5,115” of them.

The defence appeal claims there is an alternative interpretation of this conversation – that Karadzic intended not to execute Bosniak men, but to send them to a military prison in Batkovic.

Karadzic “had no involvement in the execution of the men from Srebrenica”, so the trial chamber was wrong when it found that he “shared the common purpose of eliminating the Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica”, the appeal says.

According to the defence, this means that Karadzic did not possess genocidal intent in Srebrenica.

Addressing his conviction for persecution and other crimes in 20 municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Karadzic alleges that the court “took his statements favouring political autonomy for Serbs out of context to erroneously conclude that he favoured a homogenous State from which Muslims and Croats should be expelled”.

In the appeal against his conviction for terrorising Sarajevo, Karadzic contends that judges “disregarded his many orders aimed at preventing fire against civilians, misapplied principles of ‘distinction’ and ‘proportionality’ by failing to assess the shelling from the perspective of a military commander, and ignored the United Nations’ own expert report on the Markale market shelling”.

Karadzic argues that the trial chamber wrongly concluded that a shell that hit Sarajevo’s Markale market on February 5, 1994, killing 66 civilians, was fired by the Bosnian Serb Army.

In response to Karadzic’s conviction of hostage taking, the defence argues that members of the UN protection force UNPROFOR were “lawfully detained” as they took part in combat-related activities against the Bosnian Serb Army.

The prosecution’s appeal meanwhile contends that the first-instance ruling wrongly failed to find that Karadzic and other members of the joint criminal enterprise possessed genocidal intent against Bosniaks and Croats in the seven other Bosnian municipalities in 1992.

Prosecutors argue that the judges applied “an overly narrow definition of genocidal intent” and made an error in concluding that “the objective of permanent removal [of non-Serbs]… precluded a finding of genocidal intent” to destroy Bosniaks and Croats as ethnic groups in the seven municipalities.

The final judgment in the Karadzic case is expected by December.

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Radovan Karadzic Recalls Evading Capture in Belgrade </s> Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has urged United Nations judges to quash his convictions for genocide and war crimes, claiming they were based on “jokes and rumours” and “myths” about the 1992-1995 conflict in Bosnia.

Karadzic lodged 50 grounds of appeal on Monday against his 2016 conviction, when he was found responsible for crimes including the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica and the 44-month siege of Sarajevo, which claimed about 10,000 lives.

“Certain statements were misused, rights were neglected, facts were distorted and motives were concealed,” Karadzic (72) told judges at The Hague.

“The consequences of this entire conduct were then portrayed as sheer madness.”

The one-time psychiatrist claimed that his Serb forces only defended Serb communities from Bosnian Muslim and Croat attack, that they did not take areas inhabited by other ethnic groups by force, and that Bosnian Muslims repeatedly shelled their own soldiers and civilians.

He also insisted that his wartime statements were misinterpreted “to blacken me and portray me as a person only concerned with my own people”.

Defence lawyer Peter Robinson said Karadzic had not received a fair hearing at a seven-year “out-of-control mega-trial” that ended with his client being jailed for 40 years.

Watching from the gallery in the courtroom on Monday, Munira Subasic of the Mothers of Srebrenica group said: “I was sitting in front of a monster.”

“He is a liar, lying is his line of defence,” she told the AFP news agency.

When delivering his verdict on Karadzic in March 2016, presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said “there was intention to commit murder, extermination and persecution” of non-Serbs during a war that killed 100,000 people and drove more than two million from their homes.

“The killings were committed as part of a highly organised plan, and the accused made a significant contribution to the crimes,” he added.

Referring to the massacre at Srebrenica – the worst atrocity in Europe since the second World War – he said Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic intended “that every able-bodied Bosnian Muslim male from Srebrenica be killed”.

Karadzic was arrested in 2008 on a bus in Belgrade, where he was living under a false name as a new-age healer; Mladic was caught at a relative’s house in 2011, and sentenced to life imprisonment last November for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The Mladic verdict was the last trial judgment to be handed down by the UN court at The Hague before it closed at the end of last year, and Karadzic’s appeal and others are being heard by the so-called Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals.

Prosecutors in the Karadzic case are also appealing against his sentence and his acquittal on a second count of genocide, relating to crimes allegedly committed in towns across Bosnia during the war.

They will ask judges to deliver another guilty verdict and a life sentence when they present their case on Tuesday. A final ruling on the appeals is expected by the end of the year. </s> UN judges Wednesday found radical Serb Vojislav Seselj guilty on appeal of crimes against humanity, but the firebrand politician will remain a free man because of time already served behind bars.

Seselj told AFP after the ruling that he was “proud” of the crimes he was convicted of — including inciting persecution — and was willing to do the same again.

Presiding judge Theodor Meron sentenced the firebrand politician to 10 years behind bars, at a hearing in The Hague.

“The appeals chamber reverses Seselj’s acquittals for instigating persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity,” the judge said.

The judges however said that in line with the court’s rules, “Seselj’s sentence has been served” after he spent about 12 years in jail while facing trial at the former Yugoslav war crimes court.

Seselj snubbed the hearing and was not present when the verdict was read by judges at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) in The Hague.

He had been acquitted in March 2016 of six war crimes and three crimes against humanity charges after a trial lasting more than eight years at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

A three-judge panel led by French judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said in 2016 that prosecutors had “failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt” or provide sufficient evidence that Seselj was responsible for the crimes he had been charged with.

The verdict had been heavily criticised by law experts and historians who said it had rewritten the history of the Balkans conflicts.

The five appeals judges agreed Wednesday, partially overturning the original trial’s findings, finding him guilty of three counts of crimes against humanity, but upholding his acquittals on the six counts of war crimes.

Either the initial court had “ignored a substantial portion of highly relevant evidence and its own findings, or it erred in fact,” Meron said.

“The appeals chamber finds that no reasonable trier of fact could have concluded that there was no widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian population in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina.”

During his marathon trial, prosecutors alleged Seselj was behind the murders of scores of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serbs between 1991 and 1993 in the conflicts that tore Yugoslavia apart, after the fall of communism.

The prosecution had sought a 28-year-sentence for the man they referred to as the “chief propagandist of the Greater Serbia”. They said he had warned that “rivers of blood” would flow in Bosnia if his vision for a Greater Serbia was opposed.

Seselj denied the allegations and in particular making two speeches highlighted by prosecutors. In the original trial, the judges found his speeches were not incitement to violence, but that he was merely “participating in the war effort by galvanising the Serb forces.”

The appeals judges sharply condemned however what they called Seselj’s “inflammatory words” which they said “substantially contributed” to the persecution and deportations of non-Serbs, including Croats and Bosnian Muslims.

In one speech in May 1992 in the village of Hrtkovci, in Serbia, he had declared “there was no room for Croats” adding “we will drive them to the border of the Serbian territory and they can walk from there,” Meron said.

His speech “incited violence that denigrated and violated the right to security” of Croats in the village, Meron stressed.

The judgement neatly avoids a showdown between the court and Serbia, by finding that the opposition politician has already served his time, and does not face being sent back behind bars.

Seselj, who surrendered himself to the ICTY in 2003, told AFP earlier this month that it was all “lies” that he had made inflammatory speeches, adding that he did not regret his role in the conflict.

“We will never give up the idea of a Greater Serbia,” Seselj insisted. He said his extreme right-wing Serbian Radical Party exists “to unite within the same state all the territories where the Serb people live”. </s> The Hague: UN judges on Wednesday found radical Serb Vojislav Seselj guilty on appeal of crimes against humanity, but the firebrand politician will remain a free man because of time already served behind bars.

 Seselj said after the ruling that he was “proud” of the crimes he was convicted of — including inciting persecution — and was willing to do the same again.

 Presiding judge Theodor Meron sentenced the firebrand politician to 10 years behind bars, at a hearing in The Hague.

 “The appeals chamber reverses Seselj’s acquittals for instigating persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity,” the judge said.

 The judges however said that in line with the court’s rules, “Seselj’s sentence has been served” after he spent about 12 years in jail while facing trial at the former Yugoslav war crimes court.

 Seselj snubbed the hearing and was not present when the verdict was read by judges at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) in The Hague.

 He had been acquitted in March 2016 of six war crimes and three crimes against humanity charges after a trial lasting more than eight years at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

 A three-judge panel led by French judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said in 2016 that prosecutors had “failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt” or provide sufficient evidence that Seselj was responsible for the crimes he had been charged with.

 The verdict had been heavily criticised by law experts and historians who said it had rewritten the history of the Balkans conflicts.

 The five appeals judges agreed on Wednesday, partially overturning the original trial’s findings, finding him guilty of three counts of crimes against humanity, but upholding his acquittals on the six counts of war crimes.

 Either the initial court had “ignored a substantial portion of highly relevant evidence and its own findings, or it erred in fact,” Meron said. — AFP </s> THE HAGUE: UN judges Wednesday found radical Serb Vojislav Seselj guilty on appeal of crimes against humanity, but the firebrand politician will remain a free man because of time already served behind bars.

"The appeals chamber reverses Seselj's acquittals for instigating persecution, deportation and other inhumane acts as crimes against humanity," presiding judge Theodor Meron said at a hearing in The Hague, sentencing the firebrand politician to 10 years behind bars.

The judges however said that in line with the court's rules, "Seselj's sentence has been served" after he spent about 12 years in jail on trial at the former Yugoslav war crimes court.

Seselj snubbed the hearing and was not present when the verdict was read by judges at the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT).

He had been acquitted in March 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges after a trial lasting more than eight years at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

A three-judge panel led by French judge Jean-Claude Antonetti said in 2016 that prosecutors had "failed to prove beyond all reasonable doubt" or provide sufficient evidence that Seselj was responsible for the crimes he had been charged with.

The verdict had been heavily criticised by law experts and historians who said it had rewritten the history of the Balkans conflicts.

The five appeals judges agreed Wednesday, sharply overturning the original trial's findings.

Either the initial court had "ignored a substantial portion of highly relevant evidence and its own findings, or it erred in fact," Meron said.

"The appeals chamber finds that no reasonable trier of fact could have concluded that there was no widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian population in Croatia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina."

Wednesday's appeal was before the MICT, which is wrapping up the last cases after the ICTY closed in December.

During his marathon trial, prosecutors alleged Seselj was behind the murders of scores of Croat, Muslim and other non-Serbs between 1991 and 1993 in the conflicts that tore Yugoslavia apart, after the fall of communism.

The prosecution had sought a 28-year-sentence for the man they referred to as the "chief propagandist of the Greater Serbia". They said he had warned that "rivers of blood" would flow in Bosnia if his vision for a Greater Serbia was opposed.

Seselj denied the allegations and in particular making two speeches highlighted by prosecutors in the indictment.

In one address, prosecutors say he encouraged Serbs "not to spare a person" in the 1991 siege of the Croat city of Vukovar. In another a year later, he allegedly described Muslims as "excrement" in the Serbian town of Mali Zvornik.

"Lies," Seselj told AFP earlier this month, adding that he did not regret his role in the conflict.

"We will never give up the idea of a Greater Serbia," Seselj said, adding that his extreme right-wing Serbian Radical Party exists "to unite within the same state all the territories where the Serb people live". — AFP </s> The UN court in The Hague found Vojislav Seselj guilty of war crimes against Croatians in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina during the war in former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Seselj responded to the verdict on Wednesday by announcing on Twitter he was "proud of all my war crimes" and was "ready to repeat them again".

Since Seselj - leader of the Serbian Radical Party - spent eleven-and-a-half years in custody at The Hague since 2003, his sentence has already been served, the court said.

The tribunal found Seselj guilty of inciting hate crimes with his nationalist speeches. One speech he gave to a Serb crowd in May 1992 sparked atrocities against ethnic Croats in Vojvodina.

The verdict marked the first conviction by an international tribunal for inciting crimes through speeches.

In 2016, the war crimes tribunal initially acquitted Seselj of all nine charges he faced, but that was partially overturned on appeal.

The court reaffirmed the establishment of a "Greater Serbia" was Seselj's political goal, but that did not constitute a crime.

It maintained its ruling from the first verdict in 2016 that there was not enough evidence to prove a systematic attack was organised by Seselj against Bosniaks - Bosnian Muslims.

"From today, Vojislav Seselj is a free man," Al Jazeera's Adnan Rondic reported from The Hague.

"The conclusion from two years ago still stands - that there was no proof that Seselj was responsible for sending Serbian volunteers to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia with the aim of committing crimes."

In March 2016, in a 2-to-1 vote, the UN war crimes tribunal found Seselj innocent of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Judge Flavia Lattanzi held the opposing view and said the conclusions reached by the other two were unfounded.

Prosecutors in 2016 appealed for a guilty verdict or a retrial and asked for Seselj to be handed a 28-year sentence, arguing the majority of judges made so many errors that they "invalidate the judgment as a whole".

Historian Marko Attila Hoare said the prosecution should not have indicted him when there were more important perpetrators who were never indicted.

"It was important that he was convicted, particularly since all the other suspects from Serbia indicted over Bosnia were either acquitted or died before their trials were completed or begun," Hoare said.

"I hope Seselj is sufficiently humiliated by the low sentence; it at least marks him down as a second- or third-ranking player, which he was. He was a loudmouthed attention-seeker who made himself infamous to the international public in the 1990s by his extreme statements, and certainly relished the publicity of being indicted and tried."

Seselj said on Wednesday after the ruling, "I'm proud of all my war crimes and I'm ready to repeat them again."

Since his temporary release from detention in The Hague in 2014 for cancer treatment, Seselj returned to politics and is a parliamentarian. He has lead numerous nationalist rallies since then and is a frequent guest on Serbian talk shows. </s> A United Nations war crimes court on Wednesday sentenced a Serbian ultranationalist to 10 years in prison, partially overturning his acquittal over crimes against humanity and other charges dating to the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

Vojislav Seselj, who leads the Serbian Radical Party and is a lawmaker in the Serbian parliament, was acquitted in 2016 of nine war crimes and crimes against humanity charges because of insufficient evidence.

Because he had already spent nearly 12 years in tribunal custody since surrendering in 2003, Wednesday's sentencing in The Hague, the Netherlands, had no practical impact on him.

Seselj told The Associated Press just prior to the reading of the verdict that "I don't care about the ruling. Now I'll go and have a siesta." Afterward, he told the AP the ruling was "illegal," adding that he was "proud of all the war crimes and crimes against humanity that were attributed to me, and I am ready to repeat them in the future."

Prosecutors accused him of crimes including persecution, murder and torture and had demanded a 28-year sentence for his support of Serb paramilitaries during the bloody wars in Croatia and Bosnia.

The far-right leader won notoriety for rhetoric that incited ethnic hatred among the ex-Yugoslav nations. In one of his speeches to his supporters during the war, he had called for eyes of Croats to be gouged out.

The prosecution had said that acquitting Seselj would have damaged the legacy of the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Seselj surrendered to the court in The Hague in February 2003. He was released late in 2014 on compassionate grounds due to ill health, and continued with his ultranationalist stand in the Serbian parliament.

"Seselj's sentence has been served in view of the credit that shall be given for his detention," Meron said.

Wednesday's sentence centered on one speech Seselj gave in the Serbian village of Hrtkovci close to the Croatian border on May 6, 1992, which resulted in dozens of ethnic Croats being deported.

Judge Theodor Meron said the court found him guilty of "instigating persecution, forcible displacement, deportation, and other inhumane acts" in Hrtkovci, Serbia's Vojvodina province.

Seselj said judges "lied that there were systematic attacks" on Croats in Serbia.

Amnesty International Europe Director Gauri van Gulik called the ruling "a welcome development which delivers long-delayed justice to thousands of victims of the armed conflicts in the former Yugoslavia."

The appeals court did not fully overturn Seselj 2016 acquittal, but Van Gulik said Wednesday's decision showed "there was indeed a 'widespread or systematic attack against the non-Serbian civilian population in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina'."
Radovan Karadžić starts his appeal against his conviction for genocide and other wartime crimes at the UN court at The Hague.