Legal advisors to Radovan Karadzic, Peter Robinson and Goran Petronijevic, announced the submission of the appeal to the Appellate Chamber of the Hague Tribunal on all counts that Karadzic is charged with. Given the scope of the case, evidence and current practice of the court, a second instance verdict can be expected in 3 years.
Considering that the first-instance verdict to Radovan Karadzic is extremely extensive and explained on 2,600 pages, Karadzic’s legal advisers believe that 30 days will not be enough to submit an appeal, and will ask for extension of that deadline.
“We will probably request the longer term, because we will complain on all counts of the verdict. The Prosecution will be, certainly, also complaining, and I assume that the Appellate Chamber will request additional deadlines for the consideration of complaints. All in all, it will take up to 3 years to pronounce new verdict to former President of Republika Srpska,” said Petronijevic.
The overall outcome of the appeal could significantly change the verdict. This is confirmed with the previous experiences of Appellate Chamber of the Hague Tribunal, when some prison sentence pronounced in the years were commuted to lifelong sentences and vice versa.
Legal expert Kasim Trnka said that it would be good if the appeal process was carried out more quickly, given the age and health condition of Karadzic.
“If Karadzic does not make it to the second instance verdict, opponents of this process could state that Karadzic was never convicted, which would impact on the interpretation of the war in BiH,” said Trnka.
(Source: S. H./Klix.ba)
