"Second-instance Karadzic ruling expected in 3 years"

"Second-instance Karadzic ruling expected in 3 years"

Karadzic's defense has already started working on an appeal, Petronijevic told daily Vecernje Novosti.

The first-instance verdict is the most extensive in the tribunal's history and the defense will request an extension of the deadline to announce the appeal by more than 30 days.

The deadline for the tribunal to uphold the appeal is also 30 days, after which the defense will have another 75-day deadline, he said.

"We will probably request a deadline extension then, too, because we will be appealing all counts of the verdict. The office of the prosecutor will definitely also appeal, and I suppose that the second-instance chamber will request extended deadlines to review appeals. All in all, a new verdict for the former Serb Republic president will take up to three years," Petronijevic said.

He noted that the deadlines in the proceedings are not time-limited and that court proceedings will therefore go "relatively slowly."

"The court dropping the Markale case and the six most horrific incidents of sniping and shelling of Sarajevo in Karadzic's verdict, along with new evidence which the defense intends to offer in addition to that made in the trial of Mladic, can bring a new liveliness into the Tribunal's courtrooms," added Petronijevic.

The Hague Tribunal on March 24 found Karadzic guilty on charges of genocide and war crimes and sentenced him to 40 years in prison.

Commenting on the Karadzic verdict, Tibor Varadi, who represented Serbia in Bosnia-Herzegovina's failed genocide lawsuit, told the newspaper that it presented "no new facts that could be used as a trigger" for initiating a review of Bosnia's case.

Varadi noted that "the opinion has prevailed with many in Bosnia for years" that the case against Serbia should be renewed - and that the deadline for this expires in February 2017.

"Nothing in the judgment against Karadzic has any influence on the possibility of Bosnia-Herzegovina to launch a review of the proceedings against Belgrade. It has been confirmed there was genocide in Srebrenica, which was decided earlier also by the ICJ, who stated that it cannot be attributed to Serbia. That genocide has been attributed to Karadzic does not mean that it can be attributed to Serbia," said Varadi.

This law professor said that he saw the theoretical but not the real possibility that Bosnia-Herzegovina could renew the case against Serbia in the next 11 months, before the deadline expires.