Family members of war criminal Radovan Karadžić sued the US Treasury Department on Tuesday for remaining on the US sanctions list.
Karadžić’s wife Ljiljana, son Aleksandar and daughter Sonja stated in a lawsuit to the federal court in Washington that the Office for the Control of Foreign Assets of the Ministry of Finance, which administers the US sanctions, unjustifiably delayed the decision on whether to lift the sanctions against them.
A Finance Ministry spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters reported.
They were sanctioned by the US government in 2003 after they were suspected of helping Karadžić avoid arrest while he was facing indictment by the court in The Hague.
The family claimed in the lawsuit that they did not help Karadžić avoid arrest. Karadžić was arrested in 2008 and later sentenced to life imprisonment.
His family said that in 2020 they began applying to the Ministry of Finance to remove them from the list of sanctioned persons known as the “Specially Designated Nationals” list.
Being on the list cost them employment opportunities, prevented them from opening bank accounts and unfairly stigmatized them, the lawsuit said.
Despite three years of discussions between OFAC and the family’s attorneys, the department has yet to rule on any of the three requests, according to the complaint.
“It’s not fair that someone has to wait so long before getting a decision,” said their lawyer Peter Robinson.
The lawsuit asked the court to order OFAC to rule on their claims within 30 days and asked for attorney’s fees.
