| Karadžić wants information on Holbrooke |
| 7 October 2008 | 10:27
| Source:
Tanjug |
THE HAGUE --
Radovan Karadžić wants the Hague Prosecution to supply him with information that it has on the agreement allegedly signed with Richard Holbrooke.
 | Radovan Karadžić (FoNet, archive)
|
In a submission of September 23, released last night, Karadžić asks the Prosecution to put at his disposal all the information it has on the agreement that was concluded “around July 18-19, 1996, with former U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke,“ to enable him, on that basis, to submit an application to invalidate the indictment.
The former Bosnian Serb leader also requests information from the Prosecution collected from 1996 to the present day on “calls for Radovan Karadžić not to be pursued“ as well as those on “failures to arrest him during that period and the reasons why“.
Karadžić also wants information on the link between “the U.S.’s negotiating efforts in Bosnia“ from 1995 to 1997, and the efforts of the UN and its organs like the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Tribunal, UNPROFOR and others.
The motion also pertains to information linked to relations between the U.S. and UN members, including the Contact Group, during the peace talks in Bosnia-Hercegovina between 1995 and 1997.
Karadžić explains that he needs to see these documents in order to prepare his defense, as part of which he claims that on July 18-19, 1996, Holbrooke promised that the Hague Tribunal would grant him immunity from prosecution provided that he withdrew from public life.
This pledge, he states in his submission, can be ascribed to the Tribunal too as it was given on the court’s behalf or in an agreement with UN Security Council member-states or can reasonably be “presumed to be so“.
The former Bosnian Serb leader justifies his motion quoting Tribunal rules, according to which the Prosecution must submit to the defense all materials at the prosecutor's disposal that could point to the defendant’s innocence, lessen his responsibility, or affect the credibility of the prosecution’s proof, with a view to ensuring a fair trial.
Were the Prosecution to state that it cannot supply the defense with any of the documentation requested, it must notify the defense and the Appeals Chamber, and say how many documents are in question, states his submission.
In that event, the prosecution would also have to immediately contact the source of those documents and ask for their agreement to forward them to the defense.
Karadžić is accused of genocide in Srebrenica and Bosnia-Hercegovina, and of other crimes perpetrated between 1992 and 1995.
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