THE HAGUE, March 20 (Xinhua) -- The appeals chamber at the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (UNIRMCT) sentenced former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to life in prison here on Wednesday.
On March 24, 2016, the judges of the previous court, the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, had sentenced Karadzic to 40-year imprisonment. He and the prosecution both decided to appeal and on Wednesday the now 73-year-old Karadzic heard his final judgment.
Presiding judge Vagn Prusse Joensen of the UNIRMCT, which took over the remaining cases after the ICTY closed in 2017, dismissed almost all parts of Karadzic's appeal and decided to grant the appeal for a higher punishment by the prosecution.
According to the appeals judgment, the trial chamber had made an error with the 40-year imprisonment and found life in prison more appropriate in light of the crimes committed.
The former Bosnian Serb leader was found guilty of genocide in Srebrenica in July 1995, in which over 7,000 Muslim men were killed by Bosnian Serb forces.
In addition, Karadzic was found guilty on five counts of crimes against humanity (persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, inhumane acts) and four counts of violations of the laws or customs of war (murder, terror, unlawful attacks on civilians, taking of hostages).
Karadzic was arrested in July 2008 and his trial started in October 2009.
